Children of Torchwood: Without Wax
by Gavvy Wolf-Kidd
Summary: Seven years after the events of what the media has dubbed "The Five Days of Fear", the 456 are making a comeback, and this time, they want Torchwood. Can Sophie Harper save the coffeeboy... AND the world?
1. Prologue

_Heya! So this is the story that Charmaine and I have been working on- please let us know what you think about it. I'm uploading the first five chapters tonight, and the next five on Sunday, so that it's not totally over-loaded._

_Anyway, enjoy!_

**Prologue:**

I first started running seven years ago. I ran and I ran and I ran. I went from one end of the universe to the other. I went from one galaxy to another and still I could not get away from him. It didn't matter where I went, he was there telling me it wasn't my fault, when I knew damn well that it was.  
Then I realised I couldn't run anymore because I couldn't get away. I went back to the place where the journey began, Earth. That's where she was, my salvation, the person who could save me. I was at Thames House when she said the magic words that I wanted to hear.

She had barely changed in the five years that I had been away. The only thing that had changed was that she had become more beautiful. The best kept secret in Torchwood Three and now she worked for UNIT, hardly what we had planned but it had taken a lot of time to persuade Martha Jones to train her. The conversation started off as more of a catch up because UNIT were reviewing her position and we had agreed I'd be there. I look at her and for the first time since Ianto I remember who I used to be, the charmer, the rogue, the ex con and I wonder if she's old enough to remember me like that.  
"Jack I was eighteen, when you went away. Of course I remember. You were nothing but a flirt and he still didn't mind."

"I regret it now. You don't miss what you've got until it's gone."

"They're not going to renew my contract by the way. I've broken the rules too many times and this last time was too major for them to ignore. Never mind I always was more Torchwood material and I've heard that Lois Habiba is running it with..."

"Don't say her name. What have you done this time?"

"Well it's quite simple really. All I did was hack into the Government computers because I wanted to see what had happened to all of the bodies from Thames House, I wanted to put some flowers on Ianto's grave from you, and anyway every single one of them was buried, which is weird because some of them wanted to be cremated but they weren't. So I kind of unburied one or two of them and hooked them up to an electroneurogram and whilst their hearts didn't beat and their lungs didn't need to draw breath, their brains were functioning. Needless to say when Martha found out she went mad. But anyway the short story is Ianto isn't dead"

"What? I think I may have misheard you. Ianto's dead."

"Don't argue with me Jack, if I say Ianto's not dead then he's not dead. The 456 were bluffing."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

The last time I saw the man who could live forever, I was six months pregnant with my first child. Three months later, on the nineteenth of August 2009, I gave birth to a boy weighing 5lb 2oz. My husband and I were still overwhelmed with grief over the needless, untimely death of our co-worker, with whom we were close friends, and whenever we looked at him, we could see deep, ocean-like eyes. Strangely, he cried very little, and we were often worried that he had died. About a month after he was born, we took him to the registry office, where my husband and I agreed on his name; "Ianto Williams". Three years later, I fell pregnant again- this time with twins, a boy and a girl. My husband was ecstatic. Nine months after endless debates of names, my second and third children were born, and my son showed great promise to be a medic after he kept making for the surgical tools on the table. My daughter showed a love for technology when she started playing with my husband's tools, so after hours of discussion, our son, Owen Williams, and our daughter, Toshiko Williams, were both registered a couple of days after they were born.

The rift remained surprisingly quiet for those few years, but then a knock came at the door, and Lois Habiba re-entered our lives. I invited her in, and while my husband played with the kids upstairs, she and I had a chat over tea and biscuits. It turned out that in exchange for her freedom, she had been to work with the local police, and had managed to recover some of the equipment from where the Torchwood Three Hub had once stood tall and proud. She had kept the equipment she found, and set up her own mini-Torchwood in an abandoned warehouse near where Ianto's sister, Rhiannon, lived, and had learned how to use the equipment by herself, of course encountering many difficulties as she did so, but was able to get around said difficulties and was successfully running the equipment without a glitch. That explained why the rift was so quiet for so long. However, she needed somebody with experience to help her create a new, better Torchwood. That someone was me, so she asked around, and found out where I lived, and showed me her proposal- we would head the new Torchwood together, we would only select the crème-de-la-crème of members, we would re-connect with the Torchwood up in Scotland, and we would get another big, black SUV. I was so tempted to decline- I had three young children who I wanted to be there for them as they grew up. I wanted to see Ianto become the manager of a successful business. I wanted to see Owen become a doctor. I wanted to see Toshiko become an IT Consultant. However, I couldn't say no and I know that it was selfish of me. But with the man who couldn't die out of the picture, somebody needed to run things. Reluctantly, I agreed. Now, I was back in the world I had so long ago tried to push out of my mind. We did exactly as Lois had planned- we re-connected with Torchwood Glasgow, who very kindly gave us some of their surplus equipment. With this equipment, Lois and I managed to semi-rebuild Torchwood Cardiff, with just the two of us on the team. With just the two of us, there was too much to be done to spend time looking for new members, but I made my husband agree to tell our kids about Torchwood if I died before they were all past eighteen. I drafted a contract, stating that until Owen was a doctor and Toshiko was an IT Consultant that Torchwood Glasgow would send a few people over to control Torchwood Cardiff, and to keep running it until Ianto had gained enough managerial and business experience to actually run it.

Four years down the line, I was helping Ianto with his Maths homework when there was another knock at the door.

"Who is that, Mum?" He asked with his deep eyes full of curiosity. I smiled down at him, and kissed him on the forehead.

"I don't know, sweetie," I gently told him. "But I'll be back in a few minutes. Now continue with your algebra, honey- Mr. Llewellyn thinks you have quite a potential with Maths!" He smiled a full-toothed grin and bent his head down, scribbling away while I turned and walked out of the kitchen towards the front door. I looked through the peephole and saw nothing but white- which made a lot of sense, since it had snowed heavily that day as it was winter. I pulled away from the peephole, and opened the door, revealing a tall, thin woman who appeared to be in her twenties wearing a short black leather jacket that had something about it that made it look familiar, against the freezing weather. The woman reminded me strikingly of someone with her short brown hair and pale skin. She blinked a couple of times, her big brown eyes full of anxiety.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"Yes, actually, I think you can" she had a weird accent northern but a bit posh but even though it was an accent I was sure that if I'd encountered I'd have remembered I still felt as though I knew her. This woman was just so familiar, yet I had no idea where I had encountered her. "I'm looking for you, Gwen Cooper. Jack sent me." My mouth gaped open. How did this woman know me? How did she know Jack?

I stuttered trying to find some words to say to her. "Actually, Cooper is my maiden name. I stopped using it a long time ago." She looked at me as though she wasn't bothered. I held out my hand and she shook it. I let my hand drop slowly to my side. "Do I know you?"

"You knew my cousin." She said matter-of-factly. "Doctor Owen Harper? Gingery-brown hair, dark brown eyes, square-ish jaw, really sarcastic? Do you remember him now?"

"Owen!" I gasped. That's why she looked so familiar! "Oh my god- how did you know where I lived?"

"Bit of a long story, really." She shrugged.

"Then you'd better come in." I stood aside as she entered the house, and I closed the door as she

unzipped her jacket, revealing an athletic physique.

"Thanks." She sighed as I took her coat and hung it on the coat rack.

"You're welcome. Can I get you anything? I was just about to put some hot chocolate on, and I wouldn't mind making you a cup."

"Really?" She sounded surprised. "Sure, I'd love one. Now, let's get straight down to business. Where can we talk?"

"Mummy?" I heard Ianto call. I turned around and jumped in surprise as I saw my son standing behind me. He truly was like his namesake- ghostly quiet. "Can I go upstairs and teach Owen now?" He asked. "I'm done with my algebra."

"Of course you can, sweetie," I patted him on the head and sent him on his way. When he was safely out of earshot, I turned to the woman and said; "Kitchen's free."

"That'll do perfectly." She beamed.

I set the mugs down on the table and moved the algebra papers to the top of the fridge. I turned back and sat down opposite her, taking a long sip from my mug, savouring the silkiness of the hot chocolate. After a few seconds I set it back down and looked straight at her.

"Why are you here, Miss, um sorry I didn't catch your name." I said to her sternly.  
"Call me Sophie- that's my name." She said, taking a mouthful from her mug. "I'm Doctor Sophie Anna Harrington-Harper. But most people just call me Sophie Harper. I trained to become a doctor after Owen died, I was going to be a computer expert but now I do both. I've been working for UNIT since the 456 incident seven years-"

"Whoa whoa whoa! You can stop right there." I interrupted. "How do you know about the 456?"  
"I became one of the med-officers for UNIT just after the incident I was meant to be joining Torchwood, but of course it was blown up by the Government," My jaw drops at the ease which she uses to tell me about the aliens that nearly ruined my life. "And that's what brings me to the home of the great Gwen Cooper." She looked intense and leant forward. Instinctively I leant in as well, eager to hear what she had to say. "Captain Jack Harkness ran away, didn't he? He wouldn't stay, even when you asked him to?"

"Yes." I agreed. "He teleported onto a cargo ship."

"Or so he would have you believe." She smiled intently. "Yes, he teleported onto a ship, but it wasn't a cargo ship. It was actually a satellite ship where he sent binary signals to UNIT. As far as communication with UNIT goes, that's all I know, but he did keep in contact with me. He needed to keep in touch with someone who would keep an eye on everything for him. Anyway, that's not what I came to talk about. Two years ago I found something rather intriguing with the corpses taken from Thames House."

"What did you find?"

"Against the orders of Martha Jones, my superior at the time, I connected the body of a woman in a suit found inside Thames House to an electroneurogram- a device which acts like the electrocardiogram, but shows brain patterns as opposed to heartbeats. The woman's brain showed erratic patterns. I figured it must have been faulty equipment, but when I checked, there was nothing wrong. So what I did was I took another of the bodies- a man in a silver waistcoat- and hooked him up. Same thing happened. It happened with every one of the bodies."

"What are you saying?"

"None of the victims of the 456 biologically died." She said with a slight smile, looking excited. "They've all just been cryogenically preserved- it wasn't a virus, just a weird type of paralysis gas! Their hearts don't beat, their lungs don't breathe, but their minds just... work." Her face... I don't think I will ever forget her face. She looked so possessed with her full-toothed grin, with her eyes wide and staring. "We can bring them back." The memories and long-lost emotions hit me with brutal force. When we resurrected Suzie, she tried to kill me. When we resurrected Owen, he was still technically dead, but still technically alive. I could never forget that, and I never wanted to repeat it, so I stood up and told her, in my iciest voice, to leave.

"Pardon?" She asked me, taken aback by my tone.

"Leave, now." Without much thinking, I took her by the scruff of her neck and tried to force her out of my home.

"Get your hands off me! Gwen Cooper I know about you and Owen and don't think I won't tell Rhys cuz I will."

I carried on dragging her out of my house. I didn't want to hear anymore of her crazy talk.  
"No, no wait!" She kept yelling as I thrust her and her coat out of the door. "I know what happened with the Risen Mitten! Toshiko Sato was my-"

"Just leave!" I screamed at her. "NEVER come back here again! I don't want you to call, visit or send letters here! Just leave and stay out of my family's lives!"

"Fine! I'm sure Jack knows how you feel now. He just saw everything" She scowled, pulling on her jacket. "But you will be sorry!"

"Like I care! Just go!" At my command, she pushed her way past my husband and stormed off into the whiteness of the street.

"What was that about?" My husband looked back at me with confusion and slight shock.  
"Come in," I grunted, still angry, "I'll tell you about it.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

I still feel guilty about the night we brought Ianto back.  
The music pounded like the steady beat of a ritual drum as I walked into the club. I scanned the club, to see if I could find Jack but after I had a quick sweep of the room I couldn't find him. I felt like an idiot for wearing those 'contact lenses' because my eyes were still hurting like mad from hours earlier when I finally managed to get them in. I moved to the floor to dance while I wait for Jack and I found myself quickly approached by a guy.  
"You alright love? Fancy a dance with The Daddy?" He asked, his words slurred due to the amount of alcohol he had ingested. I was ready to give him some attitude when a figure came up from behind me and punched him. I jumped back as he landed in a slump on the floor.  
"Can't you do one thing without getting into a drama?" the familiar voice whispered in my ear. The accent was, and probably still is, mainly American but with the faintest touch of Scots, I decided that I wouldn't even going to bother asking him where it came from because I knew he won't tell me. He always was a man of mystery, and to this day I still believe that he always will be. No one admitted it but we liked it like that- there was always something else to discover.  
The man on the floor shot me a dirty glance. "You could've told me had a boyfriend." He glanced icily at my saviour, who was in fact my former legal guardian. I also stared at Captain Jack Harkness, and burst out laughing.  
"First of all, he's not my boyfriend" I turned and looked at Captain Jack "You know I love the drama Captain. Oh and one last thing love, I suggest you move on because I don't wanna dance with 'The Daddy' tonight. You just go play. We adults have important things to discuss, coming Jack?"  
I shot another glance at him and watched as he gave 'The Daddy' a final glare.  
"You hit on her again and she'll be the last thing you ever hit on." Jack's blue eyes blazed with an intensity I hadn't seen in so long I had almost forgotten what it looked like. At least when Owen died he left me in the care of the most amazing man in the world.  
We turned and left, heading towards a quiet corner of the club. We sat down and ordered our drinks. I looked Jack square in the eye to let him know that it's time we got down to business.  
"I can't believe she threw me out, Jack. We've spent the past two years figuring out how to bring back all the Thames House victims and she throws me out. You saw it Jack, you saw with them bloody lenses. All I said was that Ianto wasn't dead. You said the plan would work, so what went wrong?"  
"I thought that she would have gotten over the things that happened with the resurrection gauntlets, but obviously not, I need her, Sophie she's one of the best. Surely you have a plan? If anyone knows how to play dirty it's you. You learnt from Owen how to blackmail so surely you've got a few tricks up your sleeve?"  
"I do not disappoint, Captain Harkness; you said if it didn't work I had to do whatever's necessary to make Gwen a part of the team. I sent a virus to Torchwood three and I got in touch with Torchwood two and told them that Lois and Gwen were no longer in charge in Cardiff as Captain Jack Harkness was back and that I was his second in command. The best part is Gwen and Lois won't discover any of this until we have taken over their warehouse."  
"Sophie , how on Earth did you come up with this plan? It's..."  
"Genius, yeah I know and yes I do also know that it's a lot to take in right now and I was hoping that threatening to tell Rhys about Owen would be enough but it wasn't, Jack you know I hate playing dirty..."  
"Okay now let's get back to discussing what we actually got together to discuss: Ianto Jones. When can we go through with unburying him? "  
"Well Jack, as you know I have been getting a bit friendly with the man who works there, and you owe me for that Jack. I should be able to get us in tonight."  
"Sophie, have I ever told you that you're a star? Because you are you know."  
"Do you know something, I don't think you have and you've called me many things Jack Harkness."  
During the conversation, Jack and I had been leaning closer to each other and now we were so close that I could look straight into his eyes and see that they looked more alive than they had in years. Jack looked back at me and I knew that I was doing the right thing getting Ianto back.

We were in the graveyard staring at the stone that declared Ianto Jones dead. We stood there looking at each other once again. For the first time since I had started work on the antidote I wasn't eager to get the body from its 'final' resting place.  
"Jack I can't do this. I knew Ianto... he was always nice to me... even when Owen had been a complete dick to him. I want to bring him back but I don't want to do this. Don't make me do this." I'm agitated and I know it but the thought of seeing Ianto so vulnerable... it makes my stomach turn.  
Jack comes up to me and wraps his arms around me. "Sophie I figured you wouldn't be able to and that's okay, I've sorted it." I glance around him and see that a group of burly men had started digging in Ianto's grave, searching for the box where he was resting in the earth.  
"What... But... How? Who are these people?" I step away from Jack feeling betrayed that he left me out.  
"I went to talk to Rhiannon, Ianto's sister, and unlike Gwen, she's more than happy for us to bring Ianto back. She offered to get us a few helping hands. How are we going to get him into the warehouse?"  
"Don't you worry about that, I've got it all sorted out. Apparently all we have to do is stand here and wait. Have you got the car ready?"  
"Do you honestly think that we're going to fit Ianto into a convertible Porsche?"  
"Don't go there. You can say what you want about me but don't go dissing my car. It was a gift off my father and you know how rare they are. Anyway I brought a different car, I found a big, black SUV that reminded me of the old Torchwood one, I thought it would be ideal."  
"Okay but how long do we have?"  
"Not long, about an hour. I'm sorry I couldn't get any longer but we still have to get him in the warehouse and we have to set up the medical equipment and then we have to jump start his heart, I don't get how something so complex could have such a simple answer."  
"The answer was hiding in plain sight and the fact that you found it is what makes you so clever."  
"Excuse me mate, but we've finished." Jack and I spin around and are shocked to find that there is a coffin on the ground. We both know what the other is thinking and we both set to work.  
"Umm... If you can just put the box in the car then we'll be off. Thanks for your help." We climbed into the new SUV and hurriedly put on our seatbelts. The sense of expectation was building like sparsely packed thin ice as we drove through Cardiff at lightning speed. We arrived at the warehouse in what seemed to be seconds but what must have been at least a half an hour.  
I took the keys from my jacket pocket and slipped them into the door. The door opened noisily but the alarm didn't go off- I had disabled it earlier, just before I met up with Gwen. I turned around and saw that Jack had already opened the boot of the SUV and was trying to slide the coffin out of it. I looked back at the doorway wondering how long it would take me to get together all of the medical equipment when I heard a crash. I turned to see poor Ianto on the floor.  
"Well, if that's how you treat your lovers Jack, I'd hate to be your enemy," I deadpanned. "What? Don't give me that look Jack; you know that I'm immune to your charms."  
"As if I would try it on you Sophie, now give me a hand. Let's take him out it will be easier to carry him." We slowly opened the lid on the coffin, heaved the immobile Ianto out of it and carried him inside as gently as we could. It took me a while but I managed to find the necessary equipment and we prepped Ianto.  
"Jack, can you bring me the crash trolley, please?" I shouted over to him. He looked at me for a moment but then he rushed around doing as I asked because it would lead to the safe return of Ianto Jones. It felt remarkably peaceful, acting like the Puppet Master,  
"Here you are, now if you don't mind, I'm the only person who's going to be ripping off Ianto's clothes," he looked at me and I was pleased to see that laughter had returned to his eyes. He hadn't looked so happy in seven years and I'm just glad that he trusted me two years ago when nobody in UNIT would.  
"I don't particularly care who rips his clothes off as long as I can use the defibrillator on him," I looked Jack in the eye again because it was something no one has had the courage to do since the incident with the 456, but I wanted him to know that I always had faith in him and that it didn't matter what he did then but what he did from that very moment onwards.  
"Okay... Shocking at 360 and you have to remember that this doesn't always work the first time," I said as I placeed the paddles on Ianto's chest and pressed the button. Ianto's body momentarily left the trolley as the shock shot through his body. We stared at the screen for a moment, hoping for a blip, something that would tell us that we were on the right track. But it continued to flat-line.  
"Okay, we'll try again," I said as I fiddled with the defibrillator. "Charging 360, and Jack move your arse away from him- you can hug him when he wakes up." I placed the paddles on Ianto's chest a second time and pushed the button.  
Ianto's body catapulted into the air and came back down in a fraction of a second, landing on face-first on the floor. The machine stopped flat-lining and Ianto gasped back into life.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

I used to think that death was supposed to be painless- the final transition between two plains. I used to think that death was the end, that there was nothing to be done but let the worms eat their way through your skin, your flesh, your bones, your organs, and wash it all down with your blood. Jack always told me that there was nothing- no Heaven, no Hell, no Purgatory- when you die. Just blackness. Even Owen agreed to that when we brought him back with the Risen Mitten. I can't say I agree with either of them. I didn't see those pearly gates. I didn't feel the eerie tranquillity. I didn't hear Lucifer mock and ridicule me. I didn't even see the blackness Jack and Owen had testified was the only thing waiting for us after we die. Imagine turning on a television, and discovering that there's no picture, but your satellite dish is working. That's exactly how it was- I saw nothing. I heard nothing. I felt nothing but I was aware of everything.  
When Jack told me that coming back to life was a mildly painful experience, that he had come to accept I thought he was telling me the truth... well, the day I came back is proof that he was a total liar, whether or not this was to protect me I am not sure but put it this way, I didn't appreciate the gesture. That defibrillator was the most painful thing I've ever experienced and that includes when my father broke my leg and also my many 'adventures' with the Captain! I tried to look down because my chest felt cold but I felt so stiff from being in the same position for so long. When I did eventually manage to move my neck to look, I noticed that my shirt was open, revealing my bare chest. I looked over past the gurney, where my waistcoat lay like a limp leaf of lettuce. I scanned the area, my breath coming in steady pants, it felt weird, as though I had held my breath for too long, but it can't have been that long. A few days at most. I started to take in my surroundings and that's when I noticed that the building was familiar... it was the warehouse Rhiannon and I used to play in when we were kids. I used to love this place- I'd come in here when my dad drank. It was my only sanctuary.  
Somebody was grabbing my shoulders, trying to get me into a sitting position. I resisted, I fought back and brought myself to a shaky stance, leaning on the gurney. I gasped in shock, fear and relief when I saw that it was Jack. I felt an overwhelming sense of serenity, which came to be downplayed by a ravenous explosion of anger. All I wanted to do was take Jack's neck in my hands and wring it until he died... then I would take his head and smash it repeatedly against every sharp object in the room repeatedly when he came back until he died again. His lips were moving in strange patterns, and he was holding my shoulders tentatively. When I calmed down a little, I could hear some of what he was saying; "Ianto... calm... 'm here... lm down... Ianto... 's me... 's Jack... you remember?"  
"Ja...ck?" I croaked, my throat as dry as an urn. "Wah... wha.. what?" I asked, looking around the warehouse. I saw the word 'HUB' painted in large, red letters, illuminated supernaturally by tea lights. There was a kitchenette a few feet away from where I was standing. In the kitchenette, I could see a red coffee machine, resembling the one I had back at the Hub, with my picture above it. There were a few roses around the picture, and glittery red letters above my head proclaiming "Goodnight, Coffee King". I whimpered with unease. I had no idea what the hell was going on.  
"Ianto!" Jack pressed his lips softly to mine, and as I began to relax, I wrapped my hands around his waist and pulled him towards me, kissing him deeply and passionately.  
"Will you go and get a bloody room why don't you?" I quickly pulled away and strained to find where the voice had come from. I turned and found myself staring at a young woman with short brown hair and big brown eyes. She reminded me a lot of Owen and looked like someone that I knew but I couldn't remember her name, and on the rare occasions where he and I shared a moment of peace, he would tell me about his cousin who he was hoping would study to become a doctor like him, but she had been more interested in learning about computers. Still it couldn't be her because she was only eighteen. I wondered who had been in charge of the coffee machine because Jack sure as hell couldn't work that, let alone the defibrillators hanging like casual ballet slippers from the gurney. "Hiya Ianto. I'm not sure if you remember me but I'm Sophie Harper," she smiled, holding out her hand. I just stared at her, confused. She dropped her hand back down to her side. "That's okay, mate. You've just come back from the dead- by the way, congrats on being the first person to be brought back from an alien paralysis gas- and it'll of course take some time to work your way back into society, and I don't really expect you to be paying much attention to what I'm saying right now, which is okay because I'll be repeating it later. All you need to know is that I'm your doctor and that I'll be looking after you. Oh and if Jack tries anything, I'll whack him round the head with one of my stilettos."  
"Huh?" I must have sounded dumb, but that was probably because I didn't understand a word she had said from the phrase 'alien paralysis gas'. I thought the 456 used a virus on me and the others, but this woman was obviously the cousin Owen told me about, and I had to assume that she was right because I had nothing to prove her wrong... then again, there was nothing to prove her right... or wrong... or right, for that matter.  
"Thanks for that Sophie. You've confused him. Ianto," Jack turned me back to face him, and started talking rapidly, as though he were running out of breath. "We have to leave now- Gwen'll be here in a few minutes, and we have to leave. I switched the name on the lease of your flat to mine a few years ago. There's no time to explain now, but we'll take you there." He picked me up and carried me, pushing through the flimsy iron doors. I'm choosing not to remember exactly what happened, but all I will say is that after ten minutes of illegally high-speed driving, a rushed goodbye to Sophie and being yanked up two flights of stairs, I was home, on my couch, hugging Jack, and crying into his shoulder.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter four:

I unlocked the door to the warehouse and was surprised to find that the alarm didn't go off.  
I opened the door further to find that the 'Hub 2' as I had taken to calling it, was in a state of total chaos. At the centre of the chaos were the defibrillator and a gurney. I stepped into the room scanning for any other changes only to find the entire room in a state of disarray.  
"What the...." I said as I took in the mess that surrounded me. Suddenly I noticed a piece of cloth that led, forgotten, by the gurney. I walked over to it and bent down to pick it up. Once I had stood up I unfolded the mess and was surprised to find that in actual fact it was a waistcoat. A waistcoat that looked vaguely familiar.  
I sat down on the nearest seat and my head started swimming as I remembered where I had seen the waistcoat before and more importantly who I had seen the waistcoat on. "They didn't," I said out loud to myself. "They couldn't have." I started to search my pockets, looking for my phone with a sense of urgency. Once I'd found it I pressed speed dial. I had to wait for what seemed like an eternity for the person on the other end to answer their phone.  
"Hiya Lois, its Gwen," I said when she finally picked up the phone. "We have a... well, to be precise, we have a big problem."  
"Huh? What do you mean we have a problem? There hasn't been any rift activity as far as I'm aware." God this woman could be so frustrating. It's at times like this that I long for the old Torchwood with Jack and Owen and Tosh and Ianto.  
"No Lois, this problems a little more human," I said feeling more than just a touch irritated with her.  
"What do you mean Gwen? Oh and two things: one, stop patronising me, how can I know what you're on about if you won't tell me and two, stop talking in riddles and just tell me. We're meant to be on the same side after all." I could hear Lois' tone of voice change so I could hear that she was getting angry and that I was treading on thin ice. I calmed my voice down because I wasn't eager to give that jumped up cousin of Owen's the pleasure of knowing that she had got to me.  
"Okay Lois, I'm sorry. Remember how yesterday that 'woman', and I'm using the term lightly, Sophie Harper turned up at my house and started insisting that she could bring Ianto back from the dead and I threw her out for being mad. Well, anyway I've just walked into the hub and it's a complete mess, the defibrillator and a gurney have moved, there's stuff everywhere and there's a waistcoat on the floor, but not just any waistcoat... it's silver. I've only seen that waistcoat once before... seven years ago. It's Ianto's waistcoat. The chances are that they've been here."  
"Gwen, that's really interesting because the alarm's down and I can't get it sorted. Someone's hacked into the systems and practically taken control, they've locked me out. Whoever they are they know their way around a computer. I'd check it out with Torchwood two if I was you. Oh and also I would try and get into the system to check out the video footage. I've gotta go, I'm just about to start driving. Bye Gwen."

Lois hung up the phone and I placed mine on the desk that was in front of me.  
I pulled up my chair and started to switch on all the machinery that was used to get into the computer. When the message comes up on my screen I entered my username and password and waited. The computer flashed a message that said invalid user, thinking that I may have typed something in wrong, I set to work retyping my username and password, only for the message to come up again. I retyped once again getting increasingly pissed off at the computer, only for the message to return. "Oh for God's sake!" I screamed the frustration and anger I felt just coming out in those few words.  
Once again I reached for my phone, but this time I keyed in the number for Torchwood two-Glasgow. "Um... Hi it's Gwen Williams from Torchwood three." I said when they answer the phone and say some cheery but bizarre greeting. "I'm having a bit of trouble getting into the Torchwood database. It keeps saying that I'm an invalid user, so I was wondering if there's some sort of internal glitch, maybe."  
"I'm afraid that I'm not at liberty to share that sort of information with you Mrs Williams," the Scots accent said. I was starting to get angry enough to throw things at people's heads.  
"What do you mean 'you're not at liberty to share information with me,'" I ask, furious, that after giving them nine years of my life, they suddenly wouldn't tell me a single, damn thing. But I was too preoccupied in my thoughts to realise that the voice hadn't actually shut up.  
"Although I do have a message for you from Dr Sophie Anna Harrington-Harper."  
"What?!" I shrieked like a demented banshee, unable to contain myself. "How the hell do you know her?" I looked up at the ceiling and started to get a bad feeling as to where this conversation was going.  
"Well you see, Torchwood searches for the best and Sophie has been on our radar now for the past eleven years. She is an excellent doctor, one of the best computer hackers of this century and she spent five years working for UNIT. She's not one of the best, she is the best."  
"Fine, you win, but what's she got to do with this conversation?"  
"Well, as I was saying before, if you'd listen to me, she left you a message."  
"Well then, what is it?"  
"She said, and I quote: 'Captain Jack is taking back Torchwood. I warned you he was back.'" Without saying goodbye, I hung up the phone and immediately I picked it up again. I was going to get to the bottom of this. I started dialling a number that I hadn't needed to use in seven years.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter five:

I held onto Ianto, taking care not to crush him. His head was buried in my chest, and he was crying an ocean with his tears. I kissed him on the forehead at regular intervals, and gently rubbed his back in attempt to make him feel a little bit more relaxed. We stayed like that for a while... an hour? Two hours? I would have stayed there for a hundred years if that was what it would take to make him feel loved. When he finally stopped crying, he looked up at me, with his beautiful eyes red from crying. I couldn't bear to see him so upset, but I thought he would be happy- he was back with me, and to top it all he was alive. He reached up, his fingers thin and fragile, and stroked my cheek, just under my eye. I leant in and kissed him softly, and he pulled me closer to his body, but I pulled away.

"No," I said quietly, and placed a hand on his chest above his heart. He looked up at me, looking hurt and vulnerable.

"Why?" He asked, his voice scratchy. He put a hand on his throat, and coughed slightly.

I stood up, reluctantly taking my hands away from him, and shrugged off my coat, laying it neatly on the couch.

"Because you're too weak right now, you wouldn't be able to handle me." I winked, walking across the flat to the kitchen area. I grabbed a clear glass and held it under the tap, slowly filling it with water. "No but I bet Sophie can handle you."

He looked at me his anger returning and also a flash of jealousy. "No Ianto, it's not like that with her. I don't want to take advantage of you," I looked him in the eye as I held his water out to him. "And besides, doctor's orders, I'm not allowed to ravish you."

"But Jack," he sounded hurt. "I need to know that I am really alive. I thought that I was going to die, but it turns out that I was not, and now I am so confused." I shut the tap off and walked back to him, handing the glass over, not saying a word. "I just want to feel alive, to know that I am real." He said, taking the glass and drinking from it, grimacing in pain as he swallowed. I reached over and stroked his hair.

"Yan," I sighed, "you know I would love to make love to you, but not until I get a bunch of things sorted out first." I leapt over the couch so that I was sitting next to him, and stroked the back of his neck, taking in his beauty. I felt something throb within my trousers, but it took a minute to figure out that it was my phone vibrating. I took it out and looked at the caller ID. My mouth gaped open slightly as I stared at the name:

_Gwen Williams, Mob._

"It's Gwen." I whispered hoarsely, looking back up at Ianto. He looked as though somebody had just given him a really amazing present, and then told him he had cancer. I flipped my phone open, and held it to my ear with a friendly; "Long time, no see Gwen. How's that truck-driver of yours? I hear you've got three kids now- how's that working for ya?"

"Shut up, Jack." She snapped. "You know why I'm calling."

"Yep, I think I do." I said casually. "By the way, Ianto's here if you wanna say hi."

"No, Jack, listen." She seethed. "You have no idea just how much I hate you right now. Give me back control of Torchwood Cardiff!"

"No can do." I said, looking at my nails.

"Oh, yes you can. Jack, you ran away seven years ago, thus giving up on Torchwood. Well, guess what Jack? I _haven't_ given up on Torchwood! Lois helped me to rebuild it years ago, and we reconnected with Glasgow. If you want to join as a subordinate, be my guest, but you are _not_, and I repeat, _not_ taking over!"

"Oh, really? Maybe you should tell that to your buddies up in Scotland. Oh, wait; they've redirected everything back to my name. They told me about everything, Gwen. They told me the updates on the files, the equipment you've been given, the technology you found... Face it, Gwen- you can't handle all that stuff on your own. I happen to have more experience at this stuff than you do, so just drop the charade. I'm sure you and Lois won't mind me taking over, just like I did after I returned when I left the first time."

"You are so fucking impossible, Jack Harkness!" The line went dead- she hung up on me. Score one to me. I turned back to Ianto.

"What did she want?" He asked quietly.

"Oh, nothing." I smiled. "Actually, I've taken control of Torchwood Cardiff away from her."

"What?" His eyes widened in panic.

I felt that I owed him an explanation, but how could I tell him so much when he had been back for so little time? "Can I explain later?" I asked. "You're tired right now."

"No, I am not." He protested, but I could see behind his beautiful eyes that coming back had taken a lot out of him.

"Yes, you are, Ianto." I sighed, taking his hands and rubbing them. "Believe me- I've come back a million more times than you have, and it takes a lot out of you, so you need to take a little nap soon afterwards."

"But all those times you came back," he eyed me suspiciously. "You were always active, and you are sitting here telling me that you need to _sleep_ after you come back?"

"Those times I had an adrenaline rush to keep me going." I admitted. "I guess that's why I can't sleep too good at night- I need to die before I can feel tired." I smiled slightly, but Ianto wasn't having any of it.

"Jack," he said after a pause. "I do not want sex just yet, but I still need a warm body next to me to help me sleep." He looked down at the floor, slightly embarrassed. Silently, I took his hand, and he looked up. I smiled at him, and he smiled back through the redness of his eyes and cheeks, as I led him to the bedroom, and curled up next to him on the bed, the both of us still fully clothed. I planted soft kisses over the back of his neck, and stroked his hair until I could hear his breathing turn calm and even. I closed my eyes, and breathed him in, and truly fell asleep for the first time in seven years.


	7. Chapter 6

_I know I said I'd post the next five on Sunday, but I'm bored and all day at work I was thinking about what chapter twenty-three would bring. _

_Here are the next couple of chapters- enjoy._

**Chapter Six **

That night- well, I say night... I didn't get in until five in the morning- I couldn't sleep. My head was spinning, I couldn't believe that I had actually done it. Ianto lived and the reason he could walk and talk and breathe was because of me. I had made Jack the happiest person in the world. I spent the rest of the night not thinking of anything in particular but still I just tossed and turned. I got up early the next morning, about seven, eager to do my medical checks on Ianto; I should've done them the night before but we needed to be out of the Hub otherwise the plan would have been ruined. I quickly showered and dressed in plain jeans and a red jumper, and then I got into my car- a brand new, bright red, Porsche 911 which was a present off my rich father. After about half an hour and a lot of speeding I arrived at 'Jack's' flat. I pulled the key that he had given me out of my pocket and placed it in the lock. It immediately turned and I went up the stairs two at a time.

"Jack? Are you in there?" When I didn't get a response I walked around the flat searching all the rooms leaving the bedroom until last. Although when I did walk in I had the shock of my life. They were on top of the bed together fully clothed, curled into each other. I left the room closing the door quietly and went into the kitchen to leave a note when somebody tapped me on the shoulder. I twirled around and found myself face to face with Ianto.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in?" He looked at me fury in his eyes and I wondered what I had done to Ianto Jones to upset him. Surely this couldn't be because of the way Owen treated him.

"Jack did tell you that I'd have to examine you, didn't he? I was going to leave it until this afternoon but I couldn't sleep and normally Jack's awake so I came to talk to him. How did I get in? I've got a key, Jack got sick of having to let me in."

"He thinks that we're having an affair." I look past Ianto and a slightly ruffled Jack was standing in the kitchen doorway looking at me. Suddenly I know why he's being off with me. "Jack I wouldn't sleep with you if you were the last person on Earth. I like the fact that you respect me too much now sod off and let me talk to Ianto." I gave him a look that let him know I was serious. At the same time I threw him my car keys. "Go drive around for a bit, we all know you like to drive fast, oh and when you come back we need to talk Torchwood."

"Okay Sophie, whatever you say I'm gone." Jack turned on his heel and left. The atmosphere turned icy the second he was gone.

"Um... Ianto I know you don't believe me but you will soon enough. So I need to ask you some questions to check your memory's okay..."

"It's fine!" he snapped at me before I could finish my sentence. "I want to know what Jack's been doing and if you tell me the truth I might let you do what you're meant to be doing."

"Oooooooh okay then, but let me make it clear to you I don't respond to attitudes like that so maybe you should put the macho man act away and let me get something to eat. I'm starving." After I had made some toast, Ianto and I made our way into the lounge and sat down on the sofa. "Ianto, he may just love you. After you 'died' he defeated the 456- at a cost he had to kill his Grandson. After it was all over he ran. He left Torchwood. He left Gwen. He left you. He got me a place in UNIT and left me. He ran for five years, he came back when UNIT reviewed my place there and decided that I wasn't right for them. Mainly because I never listened to my superiors and went and found out that nobody in Thames House died that day. So for the past two years Jack and I have been working underground trying to figure out how to bring you back and now here you are." I looked back at Ianto and saw that he was very pale. He looked as though he was about to be sick. I knelt in front of him "Ianto, look at me, you're okay- it's just the shock." Ianto looked at me when he was slightly calmer.

"Seven years?" He said with a tone of disbelief. "It's been seven years? And no one did anything to save me? Why did he run? Where did he run to? There are so many questions. Can you answer them for me?" I looked up at Ianto and took my fingers off his wrist.

"Ianto not right now, you're pulse is up and I don't know the side effects for stress so take it easy, but other than that you seem to be as fit as a fiddle." He looked back at me and any resentment toward me seemed to have left his eyes. I took this as a sign that Ianto knew I hadn't done anything with Jack. "Ianto, everything will fall into place for you. I..." My sentence was cut off by the door slamming as Jack came back.

"Wow Sophie that is some car. You should give it to me; it's too much for you." Jack walked back into the room and stopped dead when he saw how me and Ianto were positioned and instantly his expression turned into one of worry.

"What happened, Sophie? You shouldn't have made me go out."

"Right so I'm the trained doctor yet you're the one who should have stayed? Jack this was always going to happen when they found out the truth. Jack you told him fuck all! What on Earth were you playing at?"

"I just wanted to hold him. Is that such a crime? I've been on my own for seven years and it was so nice to be able to hold someone again."

"Jack just be glad that he could be brought back and it not being a total screw up! Remember Owen? You know the one you brought back with one of them bloody risen mittens-"

"I came up with that name." Ianto broke in, pleased that I had used his name for the resurrection gauntlet.

"I know Ianto. Then he was a bloody zombie. A pissed off zombie if I remember right and then he dies... again." My voice cracked as I fell into Jack's arms and started crying, completely forgetting everything but what had happened when I was seventeen. I was still crying when my phone started ringing. I looked at the caller ID and was stunned by the name on it:

_Gwen Williams Mobile. _

"Gwen what do you want because I'm not in the mood for an argument."

"What the fuck have you done you stupid, stupid girl?" She screamed down the phone at me.

"Umm a lot of things? I'm a genius after all. Oh, and I'm twenty-five so I'm not a girl."

"They've stopped you stupid bitch. Just mine! No one else's just mine they've stopped dead in the middle of the street, just like they all did seven years ago!"

"They've stopped? Who's stopped? Gwen you obviously think I can help so just tell me the problem."

"I don't want your help! My children have stopped dead in the middle of the street just like all the children on Earth did seven years ago. Why is it just my children? What did I do to have Ianto, Tosh and Owen repeat history like this? What the fuck have you done?"

The connection was lost and I looked at Jack and Ianto.

"We've got a problem."


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven:

I slammed my phone down in disgust. "That girl," I said to myself furiously. My gaze trailed back to my children, who were still stood perfectly still, frozen in the middle of the street, staring straight ahead, like mannequins in the window of a high street fashion shop.

"Ianto! Tosh! Owen!" I screamed desperately, shaking each in turn, trying to make them acknowledge me. "No! Why me? What did I do? What did I do relive this nightmare?" Then my burning anger for Jack Harkness and Sophie Harper turned to maternal horror.

"Gwen. Gwen. Gwen. Gwen. Gwen. Gwen. Gwen Cooper. Gwen Cooper. Gwen Cooper. Gwen Cooper. Gwen Cooper. Gwen Cooper. Gwen Cooper-Williams. Gwen Cooper-Williams. Gwen Cooper-Williams. Gwen Cooper-Williams. Gwen Cooper-Williams. Gwen Cooper-Williams." My children chorused in unison. Their voices were stuck in a dead monotone and they looked straight through me as though I was a ghost, like the billions of children had done seven years before. As suddenly as they had stopped, the three of them started moving again. Back to themselves again... playing, chasing after each other like they had been doing while I was on the phone. Totally oblivious to what I had just witnessed in sheer panic. Just like seven years ago. This could only be totally awful. I would have to tell my husband, but how? He would lock the three of them up inside the house, and would disconnect mine and Lois' standing with Glasgow. Not that we had one anymore, bloody Jack Harkness.  
I was so caught up in my thoughts that I was startled by the voice that came from behind.  
"What's up Mum?" I jumped and saw Ianto looking up at me as innocent as an angel who had just graced down to us from Heaven. "You look really scared Mummy." He cocked his head to the side, keeping that stoic face angelic. I made a note to myself to take him to his namesake's grave to lay flowers, if we made it through this horror in one piece, then I changed my expression to a smile, "Nothing love. I'm fine. Let's go in now, shall we? Daddy has breakfast on." I looked at each child and gave each of them a quick squeeze.

"What's on?" Owen asked cheekily, smiling up at me with a full-toothed grin. I couldn't help but let out a small giggle- he looked so much like his namesake at that moment. I ruffled his hair and told him it was a surprise. That made all three of them squeal with delight and run inside. I made to run after them, and then I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was gone before I could get a good look, and my instincts told me to follow it, but I decided to go in- my family was far too important to worry about something that was probably nothing at all.

In the kitchen, I found my husband serving up random-shaped pancakes on five different plates. While our children stuffed their faces, I pulled him into the corridor.

"What is it, Gwen?"His smile faded, from both his eyes and his face. He sounded worried.  
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "Do you remember what happened?" I whispered.  
"When?" He shrugged, confused.

"Around the time our son's namesake died." I opened my eyes and looked at him sternly.  
"Which son?" He must have guessed what I was about to tell him, because I could tell that he was trying to buy time.

"Ianto!" I hissed, trying to keep quiet. I heard the distant clatter of cutlery on plates, and then a head with neat dark hair peeked around the corner.

"Yes, Mum?" He asked politely, looking scared.

"Nothing, son." I said quickly, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

"Then why did you call my name?" He looked at the both of us, expecting an explanation.  
I looked at my husband pleadingly, asking him with my eyes to think of something. He didn't pick up, and told our son; "We were talking about someone else with the same name as you."

"Who? Do I know him?" He came out from behind the door fully, tugging at his school uniform of a white shirt and black trousers. "Why haven't you mentioned him before?" To this very day, I regret three things about this whole scene. One; I regret forgetting that he was smarter and more mature than your average seven-year-old. Two; I regret not telling him about Ianto beforehand. Three; I regret actually telling him about Ianto that day.

Rhys left, and went back into the kitchen and turned on the small television on the countertop, leaving me with a spookily patient young child who was staring up at me with an emotionless mask. I tried to gather the words into an order I knew he would understand, but before anything could be formed, I dropped to my knees, hugged my son, and said; "He was a very good friend of mine, but he died before you were born. And he's still dead, no matter what anybody else might say. So know you don't know him."

"Gwen!" Rhys shouted. I heard him running back to me. He burst through the door and looked at me. His eyes were like panicked dinner plates and his skin was like milk. "You're not going to believe this. Come look at what's on the bloody news!" He disappeared back into the kitchen, and Ianto and I followed. My eyes hit the small screen, where a tearful woman with dark hair and a round face was being comforted by a man who looked like he could play professional rugby.

The man was speaking, and my breath caught in my throat as I read the banner at the bottom of the screen: "Johnny Davies, Brother-in-Law of Ianto Jones"

"... and we still haven't gotten over his death and the fact that his grave was dug up just pours too much salt on the wound." The film clipped to a picture of a pale man with black hair and deep blue eyes. He was smiling slightly, and wearing a mauve shirt with the top button popped open.  
Ianto Jones.

My mouth gaped open as I looked down at my eldest son, who was still as stoic as a totem pole while he listened intently to the voice over:

"Ianto Jones died seven years ago on the fourth day of the Five Days Of Fear, where a pillar of fire descended upon Thames House in London, triggering a poisonous gas to fill the building." Lies! That fucking alien released a virus and that's what killed him! "He was buried in the cemetery a few miles from the apartment building where he lived." A number appeared at the bottom of the screen. "If anyone has any information on this crime, please do not hesitate to call the number below." The story then switched to a headline about binge drinking, and Rhys switched the television off, while Tosh and Owen seemed intent on seeing who could finish their pancakes the quickest. Both Rhys and I set our eyes on Ianto, who was still holding that emotionless/uninterested mask in place, before shocking us with the question; "Now Mummy, Daddy, why don't you tell me about Ianto Jones? How did he really die?"


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight:**

The thing that shocked me was the fact that the plan was so well thought out that there was barely a flaw and the only major one seemed to be the one Sophie had just been about to tell us about. Before her phone rang that is and before we had switched on the TV which is what Sophie had asked us to do. That's when the story appeared on the news. I looked away from the television set to Jack and he just looked at Sophie who was having a hard time saying anything because the other person wouldn't shut up.

"...No... yeah ... Johnny it was fine. In fact it was more than fine, it was brilliant. I love the fact that you did the talking. Yes I realise that Rhi was just trying to come across as too distraught... Yes it worked, Rhi..." she was cut off by my brother-in-law. She looked at me and rolled her eyes and I struggled not to giggle at her childish gesture.

"Um... Johnny, you're breaking up mate. Yeah you can come round later. No you're going again... oh you've gone." Sophie took her phone away from her ear and pressed end call. "Oh, such a shame. I really like talking to you as well." The sarcasm in her voice is evident. "What?" She looked at Jack and me, "He never shuts up."

We all sat down on the sofa, which was a bit of a squeeze because it's only a small settee but none of us wanted to move so we just stayed put. Jack looked over at us and Sophie waved to him to let him know that she was there. From where Jack was sat, he couldn't see her because I was in the way. Satisfied, Jack began "Now, what was it you were going to say Sophie. I believe we got as far as 'we have a problem'. Now would you mind elaborating?"

I looked at Sophie in anticipation of what she was going to say and that was when I realised I liked her. If Jack were a woman he would be Sophie, and there was no way Jack would sleep with anyone like himself- it'd be too high maintenance for him.

"Well I'm not sure if you heard but I didn't exactly _talk_ to Gwen- she screamed at me. Apparently her kids stopped dead in the middle of the street..."

I looked at the two of them, completely and utterly confused. I waited for someone to explain. When they did not, I asked them to. "But that is what happened with the 456- whenever that was. Hang on- kids? Did she have twins?"

"Ianto..." Jack and Sophie exclaimed in unison. When they realised what was going on they laughed at each other and I felt even more in the dark.

"Go on Sophie, you can tell him. Oh and as the leader of Torchwood three that's an order."  
"Don't you dare pull rank on me, Harkness! Okay Ianto you know it's been seven years since the 456 were last here, and that's when you 'died', right? In that time, Gwen has had three children; Ianto, Toshiko and Owen. She named them after her dead friends, lovers, whatever- I don't know the specifics of her system- and she's going to have them trained up for Torchwood. She's keeping it in the family, so to speak."

"Oh, okay. I get it now."

"Good. Right, so, anyway Gwen's screaming down the phone at me that her kids have stopped but- get this- nobody else's have. It's just hers and I thought that last time it was every child. I'm guessing that this time, if it _is_ the 456, it's personal."

There was a knock on the door and we all started looking at each other, silently willing someone else to go and open the door. "Go and open the door for us Jack." Sophie said looking at him. My gaze instantly switched to her. I looked at her as if she was mad.

"Jack does not do doors," I said.

"Why not? He does everything else." Sophie's gaze remained unwavering and was filled with such a look of innocence that I couldn't believe the words had just left her mouth. I was in too much shock to defend him anymore and he got to his feet in resignedly.

"I'm going." He sulked playfully whilst walking slowly towards the door. I heard someone laughing hysterically and turned back to Sophie.

"You could say that I house trained him for you, Ianto." She smiled at me and I just smiled back, amazed that someone had managed to domesticate Captain Jack Harkness. "You're welcome."

"Ianto!" A voice screeched and suddenly I found a pair of arms around me. I quickly realised it was my sister, Rhiannon, so I put my arms around her and gave her a stiff hug while she rambled on; "You're alive, you're really alive! She did it! I didn't think she would but I thought 'it's worth a try. Give her a chance' and she did it! Oh Ianto! You don't know how much I've missed you!"

I looked over her shoulder at Sophie who had just swiftly moved from the whirlwind that was my sister. "It was part of the plan. Because now we can go on the news and say that we brought you back from the dead and we might be able to do the same with the other Thames House victims. I know it's so much to take in Ianto but you'll be fine, I swear."

At last I found my voice. "Rhiannon, can you get off me now, please?" I removed my arms from her, uncomfortable that everyone was watching us.

"Oh... Sorry... So I guess that you're the same old Ianto then." She looked past me to Sophie who was backing away from Johnny, before he dragged her into another unwanted conversation.  
"Oooph... Ummm... Sorry Jack... didn't see you there," She said as she backed up straight into him. "Well I haven't changed anything about him. I just revived him." She was stood next to Jack and looked a bit sheepish from walking into him. "Oh can I ask you a question Rhiannon?"

"Yeah, anything." My sister said looking at me preoccupied.

"Did your children stop earlier? You know like they did seven years ago?"

"No, why?"

"Oh it's nothing."

Once again someone knocked on the door and we all looked at each other in surprise. "Jack did you invite anyone else here today? I thought we agreed to take it slow."

"We did. I didn't invite anyone..." His sentence was cut off by the mystery person banging on the door again. "I guess I'll go answer it." Twice in one day. How had she done it?

"... And I can't believe you actually dug him out of his grave, what kind of sick bastards are you? I mean isn't it enough that you make jokes about him being able to say hello... oh and that you sent your bit on the side to my house to threaten me and take over Torchwood. Well Jack I'm going to tell Rhiannon the truth and then the police will arrest you both and I won't do a thing to stop them." Gwen burst into the living room, looking angrier than I had ever seen her look before and I wondered what she was going to do. She marched straight up to Sophie and slapped her across the face. Gwen looked like she was going to do it again. Eager to protect the person who had saved me from my static Hell, I walked up to Gwen and grabbed her wrist. She twirled around and stared at me in shock.

"Hello Gwen."


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine:

I just stood there, staring open-mouthed at the young man in front of me, unable to believe it was him. Everything about him was the same- his dark hair, his deep blue eyes, and his powerful, seductive voice. Even his skin! Well, maybe not- he looked a lot paler than when I last saw him, but he was still wearing the same shirt and tie he wore seven years ago, which were both hanging open revealing his chest. He still had a hold of my wrist, but the grip was looser so I pulled it away from his grasp. I was well aware that everyone had been silent for a while, and then I heard a light knocking on the still-open door, followed by a tiny voice asking; "May I come in now?" Nobody said anything until the little boy with dark hair and deep brown eyes wearing his school uniform came in and looked around at all of us until his eyes rested on Ianto.

"You must be Ianto." He smiled, walking straight up to Ianto and shaking his limp hand. "Mummy named me after you because she thought you were dead."

"Really?" Ianto let go of my son's hand and looked over at me, smiling a little bit, before looking back at my son. "Well, your mummy certainly has great taste in names."

"Yes she does." My son smiled. "She told me that I reminded her of you, and that you were dating a man before you died. If I do turn out to be anything like you are, then I'll probably be gay as well." The younger of the two Ianto's turned and stared at me with wide eyes, while Jack, Johnny, Sophie and Rhiannon burst out laughing.

"You told him I was gay?" Ianto sounded shocked, like he was going to laugh any minute.  
"I didn't say gay exactly, Ianto," I said quickly. "I just told him that you and Jack were dating, and he must have figured the word out for himself."

"Well this isn't going to be confusing." Jack smirked, trying to change the subject. I shot him a deadly glare which wiped the grin right off his face. "What?" He shrugged. "All I'm saying is with two Iantos in the same room, maybe your Ianto could be I.J. for now and my Ianto could be I.S. or something like that." I kept my glare glued to him. I must have been scaring the others in the room because I.J. tugged at the hem of my shirt and told me to stop. I did my best to soften my expression, and then looked down at my son.

"Why don't you go wait in the car? I won't be much longer." He just stared right through me like a mannequin in a shop window. "Ianto?" I bent down to his level and rested my hands on his shoulders, looking carefully into his glassy eyes. "I.J.? I.J.?Ianto! Oh my god! Not again!" I shot up onto my feet and knocked into Jack and Sophie.

Sophie knelt down in front of Ianto, checking his vitals and monitoring his condition, making notes to herself as she went along. "Okay, he doesn't have a pulse but there's still brain activity, It's similar to Ianto's condition before I defibrillated him, I'd say try that but by the time we have a defibrillator here, he's going to be back to normal."

I looked at her. "What are you on about? We all know what this is, will you do something useful instead of poking and prodding my son." This girl was beginning to get on my nerves... Again.  
Sophie looked at us all one by one and threw her car keys at Johnny, "It's the red porsche that you were probably admiring whilst you were outside. In the back there's a medical kit... I need it now and no you can't sit in the car- there isn't time. Go on, run!" she looked back at me. "What? Gwen I think I know how the 456 are controlling the children... I need to take a swab from Ianto and then I need to take a swab off a child who isn't affected so Rhiannon can I use one of your kids?"

"Yeah, sure. It's not gonna do any harm is it? BecauseI have a bad feeling about this." Rhiannon gasped in panic. "Somebody turn on the news!" Johnny who had just come running back in, grabbed the remote and switched on the BBC, where the news reporter was tapping her earpiece and reading the latest, and freakily unsurprising, report:

"...it seems that history is repeating itself. Much like seven years ago, children around the world are stopping." The report cut to images of the last time this nightmare occurred, of Clem McDonald, of the children we and many others had videotaped, of children in Singapore, Vietnam, America, England, Germany, Luxembourg, Holland, Spain... the billions of children all over the world, stopping and scaring the billions of adults, as the voiceover poke; "The Five Days of Fear were perhaps the most frightening in the world's history. The world's children stopped, and spoke in unison, with the messages 'We Are Coming', 'We Are Coming Back' and 'We Are Here' after the pillar of fire descended upon Thames House, but we never found out who was coming, who was coming back, or who was here. Perhaps seven is a lucky number, because we may finally find out who is sending these messages." Jack switched the television off, and all eyes turned to my young son, who was now emitting the kind of noise you would expect a dying radio to emit.  
"Oh. My. God." I cried, covering my face with my hands. I.S. turned me around and hugged me, trying to comfort me while Rhiannon was madly babbling into her phone about how thankful she was that her kids were now too older than the children who were affected. It was then that I.J. chilled the atmosphere.  
"Ja..." He rasped. "Ja... Ja... Ja... Ja... Jack. Ia... Ia... Ia... Ia... Ia... Ianto. Gw... Gw... Gw... Gw... Gw... Gwen. We... Want...The... Children... Of... Torchwood..."


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten:

We all stood there, staring at the motionless I.J. Didn't these creatures understand the word no? Evidently not because they're ordering us to give up children again. We all watched as Sophie inserted a swab into the younger of the two Ianto's mouth. As she removed the swab after taking the sample, Ianto junior came to his senses.

"Wha- what are you doing with that?" he asked Sophie, confused by how Sophie had got in front of him and why she had a swab in her hand. He looked around the room surveying how everyone had moved. "Why's the TV on? It wasn't before."

"Oh ummm... nothing Ianto, I'm not doing anything. Can you tell me the last thing you did?" Gwen glared at Sophie but Sophie ignored her, making Gwen even more annoyed, I nudged her to make her stop because her son was watching her.

"I was talking to Ianto. Have you forgotten already? You're getting old." He decided that that was the explanation for Sophie's question, though he continued to stare at her inquisitively. "My mum doesn't like you, does she? I like you."

I couldn't help but laugh and I wasn't the only one. We all waited eagerly to see how she'd react and she didn't disappoint us by lying to the intelligent young boy.

"I don't think she does like me Ianto. It's a shame because I think she's lovely, but not as lovely as you, sweetheart." She said and ruffled his hair. I could have sworn that there was a slight pinkish tinge to his cheeks but I didn't comment on it.

But I had to say something, "Actually Sophie, she's a slave driver. Working with her nearly killed me and you know I can't die... Ow!" I cried when I received a sharp twinge to my ribs where Gwen had attacked me with her elbow.

Rhiannon changed the subject, "Well anyway, we'd better be going. Johnny, give Sophie her car keys back." Johnny looked at the keys to Sophie's car and reluctantly threw them at me because Sophie was still in deep conversation with her new admirer a.k.a I.J.

I watched them leave the flat when suddenly a paper ball came flying at me and hit me on the head. I could hear giggling and wasn't surprised to find that it was Sophie and young Ianto. Sophie caught my eye and mouthed for me to open the paper, so I did:

'Jack, I couldn't help but notice that through young Ianto the 456 only mentioned Gwen, Ianto and you. I think I can work behind the scenes and figure out how they control the children without them realising I exist. It means that I need to get to the Hub 2 and also Jack, they can't know I'm alive. When you're around them you can't think of me because if you do... they could do some damage. I think I'll be able to work out a way to defeat them... and by that I mean get them to go home – without anymore sacrifices.

All my love, as always, Sophie'

I looked over at where Sophie was sat with Ianto junior and think back to what he had said. It's at this realise that what Sophie had written was perfectly true.

My Ianto had read the note from over my shoulder, I knew this because he gave me a sideways glance and his anger was ill disguised. I knew what he was angry about, but before I could even begin to explain, another ball of paper came flying over and this time Ianto caught it. He passed it to me and I started to unravel it. Once I had managed to straighten it out, I could see that it was another note.  
'Jack, I'm not going to change how I sign off my letters to you differently just because Ianto's jealous. Just tell him the truth and be done with it, otherwise it's going to be like this forever. Oh by the way, I really need to analyse Ianto junior's sample, and I need to get a sample off either/both of Rhiannon's kids. So can you please sort everything out. All my love as always, Sophie.'

I took a deep breath because I knew that Sophie was right and Ianto deserves to know the truth. "Okay Ianto, when Owen died Sophie was seventeen years old and he didn't want her to be on her own or with her parents who didn't care about her then and they still don't know. The original plan was that Tosh was going to look after her but.... So anyway, I was the back up if anything happened to him and Tosh would I look after her, make sure she's alright and doesn't get into too much trouble. In other words Ianto, I'm her legal guardian or rather I was her legal guardian." Ianto looked at me, the relief evident by the expression on his beautiful face.

"Why didn't you just say so, Jack?" He asked me his piercing, blue eyes boring into the very heart of me. "Why did you make me think that you'd forgotten me? I thought I was just another notch on your bedpost, Jack."

Before I could answer him, Gwen cut in, "Look I'm sorry – Actually no I'm not sorry but it's not your relationship that I'm bothered about, it's my children... the children of Torchwood. What are you going to do about it Jack Harkness? How are you going to beat the 456?

"I'm going to do absolutely nothing, Gwen Cooper. Because you see that woman sat with your son? She's Dr Sophie Anna Harrington-Harper and she's a genius. She's going into Torchwood, under the radar and she's going to analyse these samples, she's going to figure out how the 456 control the children, she's going to come up with a cure and then, to top it all off, she's going to stop them, and do you know what the best thing is, Gwen? No one's going to die this time.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter eleven:**

I got home as quickly as I could, breaking the speed limit without thinking, and even running a couple of red lights. I knew that my little Ianto was scared but he was brave and didn't argue and kept a straight face. After what seemed like an age of driving, I was at the place that I wanted to be the most. "Stay here." I said hurriedly as I undid my seatbelt and rushed out of the car before I could hear his reply.

"Rhys!" I bolted through the door.

"Gwen!" I ran into my husband's arms and buried my face in his chest, my body shaking from tears of fear. He held me tightly and stroked my hair softly. "Calm down, love." He backed away from me a bit after my tears had died down. I looked up at him- he was smiling shakily, while his hazel eyes were filled with concern. He guided me to the living room and helped me sit on the sofa. I don't remember anything except for feeling pretty bloody numb. After what felt like hours of Rhys stroking my hair and kissing the top of my head, he finally asked me what had happened.

"History's repeating itself." I mumbled into his chest. He put a hand under my chin and lifted my face so that I was looking directly at him.

"What do you mean?" He asked. "Generally, like war and all that crap?"

"I wish I did." I rested my head back on his chest and sighed dejectedly, trying to convince myself that this was a casual situation compared to the many millions the previous Torchwood teams had faced. "The kids are stopping again..." I trailed off as I felt him freeze. After a long second, he shot up and I flopped face-first onto the floor. He looked at me with a panicked expression as I leant on the sofa to get up.

"What the hell, Gwen?" He put his hands to his head, and looked like a right Muppet doing it. He did his impression of a caged animal and started pacing around the room. "This is... this is..."

"Complete shit?" I offered.

"Close enough. Oh, Gwen." He slumped against the wall and buried his head in his hands. "What the fuck do they want now?"

"You're not going to like it..."

* * *

I sat down next to Ianto and pulled him closer to my body. He was still somewhat in shock, and I felt a little sorry for him, but there was something on my mind that I had been thinking about for a couple of years... something that I had abandoned seven years ago...

"I want a kid." I said plainly, but with every ounce of meaning in the galaxy.

"You-you-you want a kid?" he looked at me the shock in his eyes evident as he pulled away from me. "Wi-with me? S-s-s-since when?"

"Since I started looking out for Sophie properly. She's a great woman Ianto and I made her what she is." I knew I shouldn't have mentioned her but I was so proud of everything that she had achieved. She was a good person and I was the one who had put her on the path that she was taking.

"You-y-you want a kid?" his voice was a squeak as he struggled to take in the news. "B-b-but you like to play around Jack... if we have a child you can't do that anymore." He looked at me and his expression had softened. I just smiled back at him, lost for words that he was going along with this.

"Yeah! Why not, Ianto? We could go to the park and bake cakes and then when the baby's asleep... we can save the world. Genius, huh, Ianto?"

"Jack I cannot believe that you are saying this. Have you been ill recently? This is just so out of character for you. Then I am going to pounce on the idea before you change your mind again."

"So... that's a yes then?"

"Yes it is."

"I do not fucking believe this..."

"What?"

"Jack Harkness wants a kid." He ran a hand through his hair and stared into the air.

"So?" I shrugged.

"It is just... well, practically unheard of for someone like you to want to settle."

"So... is that a yes?"

He looked at me with a kind smile, but his eyes were still full of shock. "Yes it is."

"Wow I'm going to have a baby with you..." I kissed him softly and smiled back.

"You have been fully domesticated."

"Do you have any ideas for names?" I whispered, hugging him tightly. "'Cause I was thinking something like Kasey or Kathryn for a girl. Maybe Heath for a boy."

"Listen to you," he looked up at me, smiling madly. "You hardly said an affectionate word to anyone before Sophie, now you're talking baby names! What the hell is her secret?"


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve:

"Bye Janto." I said as I flung my arms around both men as I made my way out of the flat... The atmosphere was icy and I had better things to do.

"Umm, Sophie I hate to point this out but he's Ianto and I'm Jack. Who the hell is Janto?" Jack asked me looking very much like an adorably confused puppy. I gave Jack a look to let him know that he was past it and just way too old to be cool.

"Yeah, Jack if you put Jack and Ianto together you get Janto. All the best couples have a combined name. God Jack. Get with it, I mean this is the twenty first century."

"Oh okay, sorry. So I have to get with it because saying both our name takes too long?" I pulled away from the two guys realising that I was still hugging them.

"That's the one Jack. Glad that you finally got it. Now, I have to go to Rhiannon's and then to the Hub 2. Now, I'm gonna be a while, call me if you need anything. Oh and Jack, am I okay to ring Glasgow to get further info."

"Of course you are Sophie you are second in command-"

"Excuse me, I have the keys to Torchwood three and no you can't." Gwen cut into our conversation. I looked at the watch on my wrist and looked at her.

"When you slapped me they fell out of your pocket..." Gwen starts scrabbling around in her pockets but I've already walked out of the flat, although before I leave I high five I.J.

I climbed out of my car and locked it and clamped it, I wasn't taking any chances on this estate. I walked up to Rhiannon's door and knocked. She came to the door almost immediately and started hugging me.

"You brought him back. I can't thank you enough!" she let go of me and said, "You want David and Mischa? I'll shout for them to come down for you."

"Please, although I would appreciate it even more if I could be invited in." I was just wearing my leather jacket and a thin t-shirt and was freezing my tits off.

"Oh of course, come in." I stepped inside Rhiannon's house and although it wasn't the most expensive place in the world it was really homely inside.

"David! Mischa! Come down the stairs.... now!" a load of thumping ensued as two teenagers magically appeared in front of me.

"What!?" they asked stroppily.

"I need to swab your mouth and throat... It will take five minutes then you can go back to being chavs, alright?" I gave them my sternest look. "Do you want to help save the world or not?"  
"Okay." I set to work swabbing their mouths and throats I realised something... I may need to do a brain scan on you if these come back inconclusive like I think they will. Be prepared. Ok Rhi I've got to go now. Bye everyone." I walked to the door and straight to my car. I unclamped it and started driving to the Hub 2. I started to call Jack then didn't bother. I rang Gwen instead.  
"Gwen, its Sophie. Before you hang up on me I need Ianto for a brain scan I think I know how the 456 control the kids."

"I'm only saying yes because to your stupidity because I want my kids back to normal."  
"Okay Williams let me put it this way, you're not Torchwood anymore. I am and what I say goes. I don't like you, you don't like me, it's fine... I know that you already knew about me. I know that you used to hack into Torchwood's confidential files and blamed Owen. I want to save your children. I want to do my job Gwen, meet me halfway."

"How do you know it was me?" she asked stunned.

"Tosh and I both knew Owen couldn't navigate his way around a computer for shit, Gwen. I think this can remain our little secret for now, if you bring Ianto to me at the Hub 2." I hung up before she could answer me. I had already arrived at the warehouse and had entered the building.  
I started work almost straight away, first of all, I texted Rhiannon to send her kids over. I put the samples in all sorts of mixtures and under microscopes but they all remained perfectly normal. I prepared the brain scan which was compromised of alien technology and some medical technology; it could give the full workings of the brain in a minute.

"Sophie, its Gwen. I've brought Ianto with me."

"Okay come in." I spun around in my chair and saw Gwen approaching me. "Oh you already have done. Hi Ianto, little buddy." I ruffled his dark hair playfully. "I need you to be brave whilst I do this, okay?"  
"Yes of course Sophie. What's that? Is it going to hurt?" he asked me looking sincere.  
"No I don't think so. It's just going to take a scan of your brain..."

"Sophie, its David and Mischa!" shouted Rhiannon's kids. "We were told you wanted us!"  
"I do indeed but let me do this one first so he can go home with his mum." I programmed the scan and in less than a few moments I had the scan of Ianto's brain.

"Okay Gwen you can go. I'll be in touch with you." I watched her leave the Hub with her son and at the same time I organised the older children. "One at once. First of all, I'm just going to take the pictures and then I'm going to upload them onto the Torchwood database so I can have a look at them to see if I can spot any anomalies.

After five minutes I had scanned the chav twins and kicked them out of the warehouse then I uploaded the images. Almost instantly I spotted an anomaly. The younger child's pituitary gland had a film on it that wasn't apparent in the brains of the other two.

This time I really did phone Jack. "Jack its Sophie."

"Hiya but this isn't the best time to ring me."

"Well make it the best time, I know how the 456 control the children and why it's age specific."


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen:**

"What did she want?" Ianto asked, gasping. I looked at him and couldn't help smiling- he looked so cute with his shirt unbuttoned revealing his pale chest and abdomen, and his hair ruffled like waves. I pressed 'end call' on my phone and smiled.

"Nothing," I shrugged, tossing the phone away. "But we have to meet her in about an hour." I looked him directly in the eyes. Even through all the pain, suffering and disappointment he's gone through because of me, I still find it a miracle that Ianto Jones- _my_ Ianto Jones- still loves me. Just a couple of hours before, he was too fragile for anything. He was too scared, too vulnerable, but right at that moment his oceanic blue eyes seemed to reflect nothing but the love we felt for each other, which told me he didn't care about any pain he was in, he just wanted to make that love he felt real. I slid my arms around his waist and pulled him closer, kissing him, and he kissed back longingly. He pulled away after a few seconds, and purred; "I know that you have been waiting for this." He laid himself on the bed, and I gently lay myself on top of him, scared that I would crush his delicate frame.

I took great care undressing him as he did with me, carelessly tossing our clothes anywhere they wished to land. Within minutes, we were naked, and he was beneath me, stroking my hair as I kissed his neck, and kissed my way lower...

Lower...

Lower...

Lower...

In the flat beneath Jack and Ianto's, Mr. Daley looked up, wondering what that strange scraping sound accompanied by that odd trampoline-like noise could have been.

In the flat to the left of Jack and Ianto's, Casey Lake was wondering what that rhythmic banging noise could have been.

In the flat to the right of Jack and Ianto's, the old couple, Joe and Trudy Llewellyn, were wondering where that moaning and those crude Welsh profanities could have been coming from.

In the flat above Jack and Ianto's, the euphoric screaming scared the Bagshot's two young daughters so much that they wanted to sleep in their parents' bed that night, leaving Ronny and his wife Carla to wonder what the hell was going on in the flat below theirs.

I looked at Ianto as he cuddled into me, just under my chin. I stroked his hair as his eyes closed, and he smiled. I was taken by his beauty, and his endless patience. I felt my own eyes start to droop. "I love you, too" I whispered, stroking his neck, before falling asleep for the second time in seven years.

-------- --------- -------- ------

Just over an hour later, Ianto and I arrived to meet Sophie and Gwen at the new Hub. Gwen didn't even chance a look my way or Sophie's- she was too concerned with Ianto, perhaps still trying to digest that he had come back to life.

"Now," Sophie addressed us, wrapping her arms around her body. "You three all know why you're here, don't you?"

"Actually," a small voice spoke up. I turned to Ianto, and instantly felt a stab of regret mixed with horror when I realised I'd forgotten to tell him. Sophie's eyes widened and Gwen turned to stare at with eyes full of laughter.

"Jack!" Sophie whined. "You didn't tell him?" I shook my head, 'no'. "Bloody idiot." She muttered under her breath. "Okay, basically, I've discovered why the 456 specifically want _children_. There's a film covering the pituitary gland in children below the age of twelve. The film is composed of excess hormones, namely somatotrophin. What this does is it fixes up the child's emotional balance, like makes him or her know what happiness is, what sadness is, you get the picture. Now, from what Jack's told me, the 456 wanted the kids because they produced chemicals which made them 'feel good', and now we know what these 'chemicals' are- excess growth hormones. When the 456 got a hold of the kids in 1965, they probably came in peace to do something like find out how our species worked, and they wanted some kids to experiment on. What they found while experimenting was a load of hormones, which they must have breathed in, and got addicted to. Because the main ingredient of the film is the hormone which recognises happiness and sadness, the 'chemicals' made the 456 'feel good', and that's why they wanted the kids." She stopped for breath and looked at the three of us, seeing our stunned faces.

"Oh. My. God." Said Gwen, covering her face with her hands. "You can't be serious!"

"Oh, but she is," I whispered, looking directly at Sophie. "You see, she's a genius! Now all she has to do is figure out what the hell the 456 want with _our_ kids."

"That's simple enough, Jack!" Gwen cried, taking her hands away from her face and glaring at me. "They want _payback_! You bloody killed their ambassador seven years ago, and now they want revenge by taking my family away!"

"Actually," I corrected her. "_Our_ families."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Ianto and I are going to get a kid." I casually shrugged. Gwen and Sophie gaped at me as though I'd said "The world's going to end and the only way we can stop it is if we all have sex right here right now."

"You're joking..." Sophie smiled. "Oh, can I be the godmother?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," I said quickly. "Now we have to figure out when they're coming back and what they intend to do next time."


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Sophie looked away from Jack and Ianto and walked right up to me. I looked away from her, "Look Sophie, you've made your point. You win – now leave me alone." I started to walk away from her but she reached out and touched my arm gently.

"That's not why I'm here. We need to talk." She said to me hurriedly in a quiet voice whilst checking to see if Jack and Ianto were in hearing distance.

"And since when have we talked apart from whenever you want to threaten me?" I met her gaze and smiled when she flinched at my icy tone.

"I've been a bitch, I get the hint, but now I want to make up for it. Come with me, I know a great cafe, please Gwen." She looked at me so pitifully that I relented.

"Fine, lets go." I followed her out of the Hub and to her car, which was a flashy, red convertible. "What kind of car is this anyway? You can't fit anything in it."

"It's a gift. Now are you getting in or what?" I got in the car and wondered why she was so short tempered about the car. I put on my seatbelt and jumped because when she started her car loud rock music came floating out of the speakers. "Don't mind Bullet for my Valentine do you? I can change it if you like..."

I gave her a sideways glance. "No, it's alright. Leave this on." I tried to ignore the racket as the singer sang about all the things he hated revolving round him. She was as good as her word and drove us to one of my favourite cafes. She ordered a bottle of water and I ordered a cup of tea. I hadn't drunk coffee since Ianto had 'died'.

"So anyway, what did you drag me here for? I'd hate to be sitting here wasting Torchwood's time." I glared at her and was intrigued as to why she wasn't fighting back.

"I wanted to apologise to you for the way I've been treating you. I know it's stupid and childish of me to treat you the way I have been doing just because you kicked me out of your house." My jaw dropped. I pinched myself on my arm to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Since when had Harper's apologised? I know Owen never did.

"What's with the sudden turn around?" I asked her. I was still suspicious, even though she seemed genuine enough. I wasn't so eager to buy her apology.

"Maybe you shouldn't make assumptions Gwen. I'm holding out an olive branch, why aren't grabbing hold of it?" she looked confused by my lack of enthusiasm towards her.

"Because I don't want you to make a fool out of me Sophie. It's been done too many times. It's not going to happen to me again." I looked at her and she didn't even flinch at the intensity of my stare.

I stared across the table at Gwen. She's got her feisty face on, the one that made Owen fancy her. I could see why, but there had only ever been one woman for me, and she was dead. Not that she'd actually known that I'd existed. I was going to have to let Gwen in if I stood any chance of her understanding me.

"Okay Gwen, you just said the magic sentence. You get to know the real Sophie Ana Harrington-Harper." I looked at Gwen and grabbed my water, to try to distract her from the tears that were about to start falling.

"My mum is related to Owen's dad. She married a rich man...my father and I was born. My parents never paid much attention to me. They bought my affection as opposed to earning it, they bought me the best presents and they sent me to the best schools. But I had one cousin who was older than me and we got on really well. When I was fourteen he got a mysterious job in Cardiff and not wanting me to be on my own, he pulled me out of my school and took me with him." I paused for breath and Gwen jumped in.

"Is this relevant? I have better things to do with my time than listen to you go on." She continued to glare at me.

"Yes it is. Bear with me Gwen. Anyway where was I? Oh yeah, anyway he told his boss that he had a cousin that knew her way around a computer and that with a bit of training could be perfect for where he worked. His boss organised for me to have lessons with their computer expert hence why I can get into a Torchwood computer faster than any other person in the universe." I checked that Gwen was still listening, and despite her earlier protests she was.

"My life carried on like this for three years then two things happened. One my cousin died, two so did my mentor. I was left on my own except for a family that didn't love me and one Captain Jack Harkness. He didn't tell anyone about me but he made sure I was okay. Then the 456 ruined it. They 'killed' Ianto and Jack killed Stephen. He ran... he set up a job for me at UNIT and ran. I didn't hear from him again until two years ago when I told him Ianto was cryogenically preserved and since then I've been working with him to solve the mystery of Thames House. The car was a gift off my father, he still buys my affections but now the presents are bigger and more expensive."

Gwen looked at me. Her expression had softened during my story and she stood up and put her arms round me as if one hug could make up for everything. "I'm sorry I never knew that, I just knew that you existed."

I stood up "It's time for us to go." She looked at her watch and we walked out the door together.  
"How did my car get here?" Gwen asked as she noticed her SUV was parked outside the cafe.  
"Jack probably did it you know what he's like." I stepped towards Gwen once again and lowered my voice "Gwen, I'm scared." I confessed.

"Why?"

"The 456 want the children of Torchwood... regardless of their age now... I am one of the children of Torchwood."


	16. Chapter 15

_Hello again. I bring you chapters 15-20, and the instant chapter 25 is up on FaceBook, I'll put it up on here! ^^_

_G, xxx_

**Chapter Fifteen:**

"So how do you want to have our baby?" Jack asked with a smirk as we walked through the park hand-in-hand. "Do you want a natural birth, a water birth, or do you want to go into the future and get me pregnant?"

I gave him a half-hearted, sarcastic slap on the shoulder. "Sometimes I forget why I love you." I joked as his arm snaked its way around my waist. A couple of people stopped and stared at us- the out-of-time man in a dark blue shirt and a pair of black slacks with white suspenders, and the young man-with-experienced-eyes in the black pinstripe suit- but we didn't care. They could stare all they liked.

"Really?" Jack looked at me with a mock-scared expression. "I thought you loved me because the sex was great."

"Just because that was how we started does not mean that it is how we continue," I laughed softly. "And in answer to your question, I don't know how I want our child to be born."

"Well..." Jack said sheepishly. We stopped underneath the shade of a large holly tree and I turned to him.

"'Well' what?" I asked nervously.

He looked down and took my hand. He stroked it softly for a few moments, and then looked back up at me, into my eyes. "When I killed... when Steven died... I learnt what it was like to lose my own flesh-and-blood. I can't do that again, Ianto."

I felt my heart sink. "So you are saying that you do not want a child after all?"

"No! No, no, no!" He said quickly. "No- Ianto, I want a kid, I just don't want it to be my sperm." He put his hand on the side of my face and gently stroked my cheek, just below my eye. He smiled gently, and I took his hand away from my face and held it softly.

"So you are saying we should get a surrogate?" I asked. "And use my sperm?"

"Hey," he chuckled. "There's plenty of time to get my genes into the world again, but I can't say the same for that sexy ass of yours... or those beautiful eyes." I smiled and kissed him, cupping the back of his head in my hands. He wrapped his hands around my waist and returned the kiss deeply. After a few minutes, we reluctantly broke the kiss and I let out a shaky laugh.

_About three days later_

"Oh my god, Ianto!" Gwen screamed as we hugged. A couple of the nurses turned to see what was going on then carried on about their business after a few seconds.

"Hello Gwen." I smiled as we pulled away. "Nice to see you again."

"You're one to talk!" She sneered. Then she smiled. "Honestly- I never took Jack for a parental figure!"

"Neither did I," I admitted.

"So how's the surrogate?" She asked.

"She is fine- just finished insemination five minutes ago, actually."

"So have you and Jack picked out names yet?" She cheekily cocked her head to the side.

I laughed. "Not yet, and we do not like the thought of 'Gwen Harkness-Jones' for a girl. No offence."

"Cheeky! I named my eldest after you," She joked. "Anyway, how the hell did you find a surrogate so quickly?"

"Jack has connections." I said simply- in fact, I had no idea how this woman had agreed so quickly. Jack said she was an old friend of his who owed him countless favours- her name was Danica, and she had come back to this century from the 51st because she hated men from her time. She had long black hair and ice-grey eyes, and was slightly tanned- but I still was not sure about her willingness to comply.

"Either way, good luck to you both," Gwen hugged me again, and then said goodbye- she had to go and pick up Toshiko from her extracurricular Maths class. Just then, I felt what must have been what every parent trying for a child must feel- the ticking hands of the clock as it counts away the seconds until you find out that you have successfully conceived a child.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen:**

I drove my car to Jack's flat. I got out and went upstairs searching for him. I was pissed off that Gwen hadn't accepted my apology and I just wanted a break from being me. "Jack, Ianto, anyone here?" I called out hoping that it would be Jack that appeared. My wish was granted.

"Sophie? What are you doing here?" he looked at me and I realised what I had probably just intruded on. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah Jack. I need to get away for a night, here take these... I won't need them tonight. I'll call you if I need picking up."

"Sophie! Do we have to keep having the same conversation? It's not going to solve anything."

"I don't want to solve anything Jack, I want to forget." I turned and walked out the door, not giving.

Jack a chance to continue arguing with me.

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I walked back into the living room and put Sophie's car keys next to my own. I sat down and sighed heavily.  
"What's up Jack?" Ianto looked at me the concern he felt etched all over his face.

"Nothing. Everything. It's Sophie. Sometimes she just frustrates me so much. It makes me wish that she wasn't so much like Owen. He wasn't the best person to look up to but..."

"She'll be fine Jack, she knows how to look after herself." His gaze was filled with such conviction that, unwilling though I was, I believed him. Not because I believed him exactly, more that I wanted to believe him so then we could carry on reacquainting ourselves with each other.

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I arrived back at my flat in a cab. After paying the driver I went up to my flat and had a shower. Once I had showered, I searched my wardrobe for some decent clothes. I eventually decided on a black satin blouse, a blue denim mini skirt and my favourite pair of stilettos. I grabbed my phone to order a taxi and put on my makeup. Just as I had finished getting ready the taxi arrived. I went downstairs and got in.

The club was heaving but I didn't care. I headed straight to the bar. The barman took one look at me and he came hurrying over to serve me. "What can I get you?"

"How about I don't give a fuck as long as it's alcoholic?" I said to him barely glancing in his direction.

"One of those days eh?" he said to me knowingly, while he made me a concoction of different types of alcohol.

"You could say that." I said as he handed me the glass. I downed it in one and winced as it hit the back of my throat.

"Same again?" he asked me as I slid the glass towards him. I nodded.

I pulled away from Ianto. I couldn't concentrate on him. I couldn't shake the bad feeling that had set up camp in my stomach.

"For God's sake Jack!" Ianto sighed exasperatedly. "Just phone her!" he moved away from me and gave me his mobile phone.

"I can't. She won't answer."

"She really is just like Owen." Ianto stated. "Aah well- I guess I'll just have to find a different way to take your mind off her." He stepped towards me and started kissing me.

I must have had about five of the drinks and was starting to feel the effects of it. I walked away from the bar to go to the bathroom. I staggered in to the door and looked in the mirror. After deciding that I was suitable I tottered back to the bar.

The barman, seeing that I had returned, walked up to me. "Here you go." He said pulling a drink from under the counter.

"Thanks," I said downing it I noticed a subtle change of texture, it was slightly powdery but I was too far gone to care. I kind of semi walked to the dance floor so I could dance to one of my favourite tracks when I realised that I was drunker than I thought and couldn't use my legs.  
"Hey!" I turned to see the barman had followed me. "I've just finished. Do you want me to stay with you; you look a little unsteady on your feet." He put his arm around my waist before I could object. My condition was worsening by the second so I let him, without arguing.

I started to panic when he led me through a door marked staff only, I tried to say something but my head was spinning.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My wrist strap beeped and a hologram appeared. We both looked at it and saw that Sophie was being drugged. "We need to get up... now!" I looked at Ianto who was already dressed.

He threw some keys at me, "Where is she? Catch me up." He was ready to go out of the door except he didn't know where he was going.

"Ianto, I hate to point this out, but you don't know where you're going."

"Have they moved Owen's favourite bar then?" He asked me and it was at that moment I knew why I had fallen in love with him. He knew how to use his initiative.

"No it's in the same place... Go!" I practically screamed at him... I couldn't let anything happen to her. Owen would never have forgiven me and I would never forgive myself. I headed to the downstairs after I was dressed to see which car I was left with...

"Ianto!" I screamed into the empty street when I saw that he'd taken the Porsche.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I kept trying to push the barman off me but he won't budge. I wished that I hadn't drunk so much and that I could get my limbs to work so that I could kick him. He has managed to undo my top and skirt so I am in my underwear and there's nothing I can do to stop him from raping me...

The door bursts open and suddenly the guy is sprawled on the floor and I find myself staring at...  
"Ianto." I sobbed, hugging him, I didn't care what I looked like I just wanted to be held and he seemed to understand that but before he hugs me he takes his jacket off and puts it round my shoulders to stop me from getting cold.

My legs start to give whilst I'm holding on to him but another pair of arms grab me and pick me up. I find out that it's Jack and I just clung to him and cried.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I walked into the staff only room and find Sophie half in Ianto's arms and half on the floor. I picked her up and cradled her. I carried her out to the SUV and placed her gently on the back seat.  
"What about her car Jack?" I turned and Ianto's looking at me because there's no way that we're leaving her on her own in the back of the car. Ianto handed me a bundle that turned out to be Sophie's clothes. I threw them in the back with her and Ianto climbed in the back to sit with her.  
"I phoned Gwen. She's getting PC Andy to have it brought to our flat. How come you're getting in the back?"

"Well I thought you wanted to drive because you're faster and then we can just put her to bed. But of course if you want me to drive."

"No Ianto, because as usual you're right. I'll drive... you just make sure she's okay. I'll be back in a minute. I turned away from the SUV and walked into the club. I went straight through the door where we had found Sophie and found a man on the floor. He looked up at me.

"I didn't want to, but she paid me."

"Who paid you?"

"Gwen something or other. She said that this girl needed bringing down a peg or two."

"I'm going to kill her! But first of all I'm going to kill you..." I aimed my gun and was about to fire when someone touched my hand.

"No you're not Jack. You're going to take Sophie home." Ianto looked at me and I knew he was right, but before I put my gun away I fired it. The shot went wide.

"Next time I won't miss."

"Gwen wouldn't, would she?" Ianto asked as we walked through the heaving bar.

"I don't know Ianto. But I'm going to find out." As we walked to the car, Sophie was still curled up in the back the only difference was the static hiss of the radio.

"We are the 456... We want the children of Torchwood... We are the 456... We want the children of Torchwood... We are the 456... We want the children of Torchwood..."


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen:**

"Rhys?" I whimpered, looking out the window at the big, black SUV parking itself outside my house. "Oh god..." I closed the curtains and rushed to the door.

"GWEN!" The angry American voice screamed as the door was repeatedly banged on. I jumped back just in time as the door swung off its hinges, and Jack stormed through the door alone. "YOU'VE GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO, MISSY!" I shrank back in fright as he loomed over me like a little girl's nightmare.

"What?" I squeaked, covering my face as he brought up a clenched fist.

"YOU KNOW WHAT!"

"What the fuck is going on here?" I heard Rhys clamber down the stairs, then stop short. "What the fuck are you doing here, Harkness?" He cried. "Decided Ianto's not good enough for you, have you? Decided to have another fucking crack at _my_ girl?"

"NO! I don't think I could _ever_ love someone as fucking heartless as your _wife_," he spat out the last word as though it were covered in poison.

"What the fuck do you mean '_heartless_', Harkness?" Rhys sounded confused, and so was I, yet all the while I was still curled up in fear at the foot of the stairs.

"She knows what she fucking did! Go on, Gwen- why don't you just fucking tell him already? He has a fucking right to know! He is you husband after all, right? Come on, woman- quit acting like such a fucking baby and get up off the fucking floor!"

I screamed as I felt a rush of air against my leg.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" I heard Rhys leap from his position, then the sound of the two men struggling.

"She paid a man to put rohypnol in Sophie's drink!" Jack yelled, catching both Rhys and me off guard. I looked up and saw both men staring at me- Rhys with shock and confusion, Jack with anger and vengeance.

"What?" Rhys and I asked in unison.

"Sophie was pissed at you," he pointed at me, "so she went to a bar," he pointed at the front door, which was still hanging off the hinges, "where she had a few drinks, and in the last one there was rohypnol, and the guy said that you," he pointed back to me, "had paid him to do it!"

"Gwen!" Rhys gave me a disappointed look.

"Hang on," I got up cautiously, holding onto the banister for support. "How long ago was this? Which bar?" I asked, choosing my words carefully.

"About half an hour ago," Jack said, having calmed down a little bit. "At Owen's favourite place." He looked at me with anger seething out of his eyes.

"Okay, Jack," I said, trying to be rational. "I've been here since half four this afternoon, after I left Sophie, and it is now quarter to nine. In that time, I have picked my kids up, helped I.J. with his Welsh and Science homework; I have helped little Tosh with her Maths, and Owen with Biology. Then _after_ that, I've been helping Rhys clean up the house _and_ have put all three kids to bed. Owen's bar is an _hour_ away from here by car both ways, so there's no way I could have driven there and back, and you can't get the phone unless you've got a specific landline, which I don't have. How could I have done all of that, while going to the bar and paying people to date-rape a girl who I now feel guilty about being pissed at?"

He looked at me, a wave of guilt and some relief crashing down on him as he realised that I was right.

"Oh my god..." He whispered. "Gwen, I'm so sorry." He moved to hug me, but Rhys shoved him back. The looks we both gave him must have made the message clear; "GET OUT".

"I'll go," he said quietly, turning to leave. Just before he exited the house, he turned back and looked directly at me. "Now that I know it wasn't you," he said softly. "Danica's first sonogram is on Monday. I want you to be there, Gwen. Please come, Gwen- I'd love for you to be there."

With that, he left us, and drove away in the big, black SUV.


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Jack placed Sophie on the bed and told me to look after her. I nodded at him and he left the room and the next thing I heard was the door slam shut, I wasn't the only one. I looked over at Sophie and she had opened her eyes and passed her a glass of water that I had put there while Jack brought her in. She had slept through the 456 broadcast and hadn't even so much as fluttered an eyelid at Jack's erratic driving. It was almost as though she was in a deep sleep. Until now that is.

"Good morning Ianto," she croaked upon seeing me. "Why are you looking at me like that Ianto? You're scaring me." She looked all ruffled and I couldn't look at her so I glanced the other way.  
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" she shrieked, my gaze instantly altered course to look at her and see what she had screamed at. "W-w-w-where are my clothes? I-I-I-I-I-Ianto I adore you, but not that much. W-w-w-w-w-what have we done?" she looked horrified and I realised what she thought.  
"Oh no! Umm no! Erm... we didn't do anything and you've been asleep for half an hour. I looked at her, confused that she didn't remember anything. "Umm Sophie, don't you remember? You went to a bar. Some guy tried to rape you..."

"Oh. My. God. No surely not!" she paused at me and realisation flooded onto her face. "Ianto it's coming back to me now... but I don't want to remember that. Will you ret-con me?" there were tears running down her face and her brown eyes sparkled with them.

"I can't, I'm sorry. Jack would kill me for ret-conning you." I really was sorry that I couldn't do that. The situation had gotten awkward especially since she remembered. "Do you know if Gwen was involved in anyway? It's just that the guy said that she was... and Jack's gone to sort her out."

"Jack's gone to sort Gwen out? Why, she didn't do anything. The guy was being manipulated by the 456. They have figured out a more advanced mind control technique using radio waves as the base component hence why it happened in a bar and not a museum for example." The words flew from her mouth thick and fast and I realised why she was saying this.

"So they got the guy to say it was Gwen to..."

"Divide and conquer."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
My phone rang and I answered it by pressing on my ear piece. "Captain Jack Harkness."  
"Jack, its Ianto. Sophie has woken up and told me that Gwen wasn't involved in the incident at the club and that in actual fact it was some sort of elaborate mind control from the 456. Divide and conquer is the motto apparently. Oh and whatever they gave her caused temporary amnesia."  
"What, Ianto, she just told you all that info so how could she have told it to you if she was suffering from some sort of amnesia."

"Yes but the alien ret-con is similar to our own. If the person who has ingested the ret-con wants to remember enough, they will. It has happened twice before with, Idris Hopper from the council and Gwen Cooper so why shouldn't a similar thing happen with Sophie?"

"No Ianto you're completely right I just wish that you'd told me this before I had a go at Gwen."

"You didn't?"

"I did."

"They're winning."

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I hung up the phone and looked at Sophie. "He'd already got there and had it out with her." Sophie leant back on the pillows that I had placed so that she could sit up.

"Ianto, we need to find a way to get Gwen back on side. We need to stand before the 456 united." She stared at the phone in my hand. "Give me the phone."  
I glanced at the phone and remembered Jack's instructions. "Sophie... I can't. Jack will go insane if he finds out."

"Okay I'm going to rephrase it so you don't have a choice, if that makes it any easier for you. As your senior at Torchwood, that wasn't a question Ianto, it was an order now give me the phone."  
"I'm not going to argue with that." I passed her the phone and watched as she dialled a number and put the phone to her ear.

"Hi is Gwen there? It's Sophie Harper." She cocked her head to the side and moved the phone away from her ear as a load of shouting came from the end.

"Yes Rhys. I realise that Jack just had a right fucking go at her, as you so eloquently put it. I want to explain the situation to her."

She looked at me and rolled her eyes. I knew the feeling. It felt like yesterday when Rhys had stopped Jack and I from getting it on because of some bloody beans.

"I would appreciate it immensely Rhys if you did go and get her, yes." She stopped talking for a moment as Rhys, presumably, went to get Gwen. "Hiya Gwen.... No I'm sorry about that; he's very protective of me.... No it's some sort of manipulation by the 456... Yes, I do realise that he has caused you unnecessary upset... Absolutely... If I'm honest Gwen I've not phoned you to apologise for someone else's actions... Yes I know, you just said that... I rang to tell you that the 456 are trying to win this battle by divide and conquer, Jack, Ianto and yourself need to stand together... No Gwen you know that I'm not a part of this... I can't be... Fine then... They'll just have to find a way to do this without you Gwen."

She hung up the phone and looked me in the eye. "You didn't hear that conversation Ianto." She glared at me and I realised that what she was saying was for Jack's benefit. "Ianto, I have a problem. Jack made Gwen the impossible promise that I would stop the 456 without any deaths. I have a plan to save Gwen's kids... but for the plan to work there has to be a death."

"Sophie what do you mean? You're a genius, surely there's another way?" she chose this moment to throw a letter at me. I opened it when she gave me the go ahead.

_Dear Ianto,_

_I'm writing this letter because I need you to know the contingency plan. This is going to get confusing by the way but stick with it. You and Jack (maybe Gwen- it depends on if we can get her on side) will be negotiating with the 456 and I will be on the outside setting up the frequency that will take them down... but they need to think that I'm going to die to complete it. So Ianto only you will see this letter. If something happens that stops me from completely setting up the frequency in a word we're fucked.... unless you can simultaneously do the same thing in the room in a way that is inconspicuous. I'm hoping that this can happen if all goes well... no one dies. If it does go wrong... I die.__  
_

_Lots of Love,_

_Sophie_

"Fingers crossed, eh Ianto?" she said as she stared at me as I obviously had a look of intense horror and amazement.

"But you might not have to..."

"We have to be prepared for the worst case scenario."

"I'm back! Ianto how's Sophie?" Jack shouted, Sophie threw the phone and I caught it deftly while putting the letter in my pocket.

"She's fine Jack."

Jack walked into the room and just as he did white noise started coming from the TV. We all rushed into the next room to check it out, Sophie had grabbed Jack's coat to cover herself, and saw a picture on the screen.

"We are the 456... We want the children of Torchwood... We are the 456... We want the children of Torchwood... We are the 456... We want the children of Torchwood... Tomorrow."


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen:**

Sunday. The day the Bible says God rested. The day millions of Christians and Catholics worldwide wake early to make it to Mass or the Sunday Service... To me, it was just another day of sleeping until twelve in the afternoon, showering, grabbing something quick to eat and hitting the books so that I would be prepared for everything on Monday. Mum used to say that she would get me a tailored suit-and-tie combination and teach me how to use a coffee machine like my namesake. That was when she thought he was dead, though. Then I met him, and she saw that he was alive and well, and she wouldn't explain anything to me. She probably thought I was too young to understand, and then she and Dad would argue about whether or not to tell me about Mum's "home business", with him giving the pro's and con's about how I was a lot smarter and more mature than other seven-year-olds. Then she would turn around and say that something called "the 456" wanted me _because_ of her "home business", and it would go on like that for hours, and they would both act the happy-in-love couple in the mornings, pretending that nothing had gone on the previous night. I didn't question them, and they didn't raise any need to question- it would just be a normal day.

This particular Sunday, however, Mum looked far more shaken than she usually did as she entered the kitchen while I grabbed an apple. I looked her over while chewing the fruit, and noticed that her hands were shaking as she poured hot water into two stormy grey mugs.

"Is everything okay, Mum?" I asked, swallowing the apple. She looked at me- her normally kind brown eyes which held glitter were wide and bloodshot with fright. She put the kettle down and looked away, as though ashamed of something. "Mum," I sighed. "You forget that I can understand more than most children my age." It might have sounded pompous, but that was always the best thing to say when I wanted to know something.

Just as she opened her mouth, I dropped my apple, and felt overcome with a strange, electrically-buzzing sensation. My eyes became cold while my body felt like a wax candle, and my throat started feeling stretched and scratchy.

----------------------------------------------

I stared in horror at my son as he started taking grunted breaths, and opened his mouth unmasking that evil noise which sounded like a dying radio. I covered my mouthed and yelled "RHYS!" at the same time as I heard "GWEN!" coming from the back garden. Then, the noise stopped, and the 456 spoke again...

"From the ashes of this Earth is where we shall rule... From the ashes of this Earth is where we shall rule... From the ashes of this Earth is where we shall rule... Give them unto us, Gwen... Give her unto us, Jack... Give them unto us, Ianto."

Then, the noise of the dying radio came back, and after a few seconds, it stopped and I.J. looked up at me. "Well," he cocked his head to the side and stared up at me with those wide hazel eyes. "What's wrong? You look more scared than you did before."


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty:**

I walked through the cemetery at a steady pace, avoiding as many of the graves as I possibly could until I came across the one I was looking for. I tried to come here often, but with all that had happened recently, there hadn't been time. To make up I had arrived with a huge bunch of flowers and in my favourite black vest top and black jeans.

I placed the flowers by the gravestone and sat next to them. I know it's seen as rude but I just wanted to be close to him and it's the only way I did. After sitting there for five minutes, just thinking, I decided it was time to talk.

"Hiya Owen. I'm sorry I haven't been to talk to you for the past few days, or however long it's been. I've been really busy. I brought you some flowers by the way."

I stopped talking to the empty grave, not because I'd run out of words but because I could hear exactly what he was saying in my head and I loved talking to him as though he was still alive.  
"I don't do flowers Sophie and you know I don't" he said to me.

"I know you don't but I keep getting strange looks from people. They think I'm strange talking to a headstone and not bringing any flowers."

"Fine!" I could almost see how pissed off he looked when he was beaten by a girl. "So what's been going on in Sophie Land then?"

"Well Jack and I took back Torchwood and we brought back Ianto. But Gwen hates me and some aliens called the 456 want to abduct her kids and myself? What do I do Owen? I love Torchwood but I don't want to be just another employee who died for the cause."

"Sophie..." he sighed as he always did at this point of our conversations.

"I know I'm more than just another employee of Torchwood but what do you know? I'm sat on an empty grave talking to you when you're actually in a power plant kind of... You died for the stupid cause and I don't want to be like you." I knew that I looked mad but I didn't care. My phone rang. It was Jack.

"Not now I'm busy." I said.

"Sophie you have an hour to get to the old Hub. We think that that is where the 456 will arrive."  
"I don't care I'm busy" I replied.

"Sophie, you have an hour and that's an order." Jack hung up on me before I could argue with him.  
"I've gotta go." I got up and walked to my car with tears in my eyes.

I rocked up at the old Hub with seconds of my hour to spare. I was still upset as I walked up to Jack.  
"Where've you been Sophie? It's been practically an hour, and why are you dressed in black?"  
I glared back at him. "Well you see Jack; I was at Owen's grave because, unlike your darling Ianto, he's dead!"

"I'm sorry Sophie. You should have said."

"You didn't give me time." I told him although I had softened towards him. He just hadn't thought to ask and something was obviously getting at him. "What's up?"

"We've had another message; apparently they will rise from the ashes of the Earth." He told me. "How are you getting on with the plan to stop them?"

"Umm, alright. I just need to run a few things past Ianto, is that okay?" I asked. I looked over at Ianto who was walking around where the Hub had once stood tall and proud. I took in the sight of the passers by giving us funny looks. "I take it as we're waiting for Gwen."

"Yeah, she's the one who knows what they said, they went through I.J. Again. Needless to say she's not happy."

"She's never happy Jack. It just seems that she's even less happy when I'm around, so therefore I think I'm going to discuss with Ianto."

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Gwen walked up to me and I knew what she was going to say before she said it. "We're doing our best Gwen. We can't do everything. We've got to prepare for the impending arrival of the 456 and this arrival seems to be imminent." I told her before she'd even opened her mouth.

"Fine Jack, but I want in on this. I mean it is my children they're after. I want to be the one that stops them." The look of utter determination reminded me of why Gwen had been recruited into Torchwood.

I passed Ianto the sheet of paper. "So anyway if you follow what it says on there, to the letter mind, I only have to focus on the more complicated parts of the equation. If we enter the code right we should come across the piercing scream of an alien. I'm hoping that the pitch is similar to that of the children of Earth."

"Okay so what you're saying is 'Ianto you do the simple bit and I'll do all the hard work.'"  
"Dead right Ianto. Now we just have to figure out what to do if it all goes tits up."


	22. Chapter 21

_Hey guys! Here are chapters 21-25. I hope you enjoy them, reviews are loved, and, of course, Char and I would love to hear your ideas for future reference. We haven't got C26-C30 yet, so don't panic because it'll take a few days to write them._

_Oh, and just a heads-up: I get my GCSE results on the 27th of August, and I will be writing a fanfic from my POV. I'm not sure how it'll go- it depends on my grades. Wish me luck..._

**Chapter Twenty-One:**

"Happy birthday to you!" We sang as happily as we could, despite the worry. I looked at Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Sophie and Rhys as we all gathered around I.J.'s birthday cake. I forced a smile, as many of the others were doing. It was August, and about seven months after the 456 failed to arrive, and that particular day was I.J.'s eighth birthday and Ianto's 27th. The elder of the two didn't want us to do anything special for him, but was happy to join in celebrations for the younger. After I.J. had blown out the candles, Rhys moved to cut the cake. As he did so, I pulled Jack out of the kitchen and into the hall.

"How's Danica?" I asked, still holding my fake smile in place, even though I was happy that Jack and Ianto were going to have a child.

"She's fine," he replied. "The next sonogram is on Wednesday, and I really want you to come to this one, seeing as how you didn't come to the first, second, or third ones."

"Jack," I sighed, my shoulders drooping. In all honesty, even though he had regained my trust and loyalty as his employee, I still hated him for leaving, and I felt that the only way I could somewhat hurt him was by ignoring his child's development. It seems really childish, I know, but I couldn't think of any other way. "You know I want to go, but with I.J., T.J. and O.J., it gets hectic, you know?"

"So?" He shrugged. "Bring them with you- kids should see where babies come from. It's good for their understanding."

"Rhys wouldn't let me," I lied quickly. "He likes Ianto alright, but he still isn't so keen on you. I don't think it'd be the best idea."

"I can tell that you're lying, Gwen," he said, his blue eyes filled with melancholy. "Please, Gwen," he took hold of my hand and looked into my eyes. "You have to come- we're finding out the gender on Wednesday. I want you to be there- it wouldn't be right if you weren't." He always knew how to guilt trip me, so I agreed to go. As he let go of my hand, we walked back into the kitchen to find Ianto holding I.J. up in the air, the elder of the two smiling and the younger laughing and hugging onto this namesake. It made me smile to see everyone laughing- even Sophie, despite her fears about the 456 coming to take her.

The few months leading up to I.J.'s birthday were unbelievably quiet- no more children stopping, no more strange messages- everything was normal, and that's exactly what we were afraid of. In Torchwood, normality normally meant that there was a storm coming, be it Rift-related or something like every single child in the world stopping, chanting "We are here" and then another alien killing a beloved member of the team, _then_ a horror-style twist where the team member _isn't_ dead, and seven years later he comes back to life while you're trying to raise three kids and run a mini-version of Torchwood at the same time.

I was happy that day, because it seemed like the past seven years had been completely alien-free, like what every other family experienced.

Then the card came.

The letter-flap opened, and I heard something land on the floor. I went to collect it, and found a plain white envelope with the name _Gwen Williams_ written in neat black handwriting. Thinking nothing of it, I opened the envelope and pulled out the card that totally wrecked my feeling that everything was normal. The picture on the front was of a hideous creature with three bug-like heads, each with slime-covered beaks. The creature was a sickening shade of purple, and very scaly. The card felt slimy as I opened it to find the chilling message;

_We are here._

_We are watching you._

_Sophie will be ours._

_Ianto will be ours._

_Toshiko will be ours._

_Owen will be ours._

_Gareth with be ours._

_Naoko will be ours._

_Be warned._


	23. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty Two:

I turned and looked at Sophie. It was all I could do not to start crying. Sophie looked back at me; her big brown eyes had doubled in size due to her fear. She started backing towards the door, getting ready to run and I knew then that I was going to have to catch her if I wanted to discuss the note from the 456.

"Gareth? Naoko? Who the hell are they?" Gwen asked diverting my attention away from Sophie.  
"I don't know. But they seem to be important, we have to find out who they are and protect them. Ianto look up who they are." I was pissed off that Gwen had shifted everyone's attention and I wanted to make her pay.

Gwen walked up to me and whispered in my ear. "Not now Jack, don't hurt I.J.'s feelings, It's his birthday." Her eyes were pleading with me and I knew that I was going to relent.

"Fine Gwen, not now, but we have to find Sophie, since you let her get away." I looked at her for a split second then turned away. "I'm going to find her. I know exactly where she is." Without another word I headed to the door.

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I sat against the gravestone and cried. "What if they come and get me Owen? I'm not even a child anymore, what would they do with me? I don't want to die. I'm only twenty five, I'm far too young."  
"And beautiful." I spun around and stood there in a nineteen forties RAF coat was Captain Jack Harkness. "Sophie, why didn't you tell me? I would have stopped you from helping. I'd have hidden you away, where they couldn't find you."

"That's precisely why I didn't tell you Jack, I didn't want to be hidden away. I wanted to help. I wanted to save the world, but it turns out that the only person I'm saving is myself!" I screamed at him. I didn't care if I was meant to keep my voice low, besides Owen would have loved to Jack and I have a fight in a graveyard.

"Sophie! This isn't the time to run away! You've started now you may as see this through to the end!" He wasn't afraid to let me know that he was the boss and that I was to obey him. I knew that I had lost but I wasn't going to give up without a fight.

"Jack I think that's a bit hypocritical coming from you. The slightest bit of trouble and you run for hills like you're going up shit creek without a fucking paddle!" I was proud of myself for thinking of that because I knew that I had hit him where it hurt.

"Yeah and that's why I'm not going to let you do the same. Sophie if I'm not going to learn from my mistakes then I want someone to." He looked at me and I knew that he was serious just as I had known all along that I wouldn't run. I was always just coming here to vent out my fear on my dead cousin, the person who had meant more to me than life itself. Jack had known where I was from the second Gwen had distracted him long enough for me to slip out of the door.  
"Jack, how can they be watching us? What if they've developed a sort of human suit like the Slitheen?"

"Sophie, that's a brilliant suggestion. How on Earth do you think of all this stuff? It's the obscure stuff yet you seem to pick up on it."

"It's a gift Jack. Why did you come after me Jack? You knew that I was coming here. You knew that I needed to talk through how I felt with Owen. Why did you follow me?"

"I followed you because I needed to talk to you. I can't have you, running away like I did so many times before. You're stronger than me; I need you to be my right hand woman in Torchwood. Gwen was so good at that but I can't ask her to be that now, she's got her own family to worry about."  
I lowered my eyes and looked away. So it wasn't me he wanted, it was Gwen. I should've known I wasn't good enough to be second in command of Torchwood. "Thanks for that Jack. You're right actually, I wasn't going to run. I was just going to talk to my cousin's empty grave. And the only reason I'm visiting an empty grave is because of you Jack fucking Harkness!" I turned and ran for to my car.

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"Sophie!" I shouted after her, but I knew it was too late. I had managed to alienate her and now I had no idea what she was going to do. I grabbed my phone and rang her. I didn't expect an answer so I was surprised when I got one.

"Don't talk, just listen. I don't want to hear from you again Jack, you just burnt your last bridge with me. You want Gwen, just go and fucking tell her, I 'm not hanging around to be second best, I'm many things but second best isn't one of them. I'm a genius Jack, just in case you'd forgotten. I don't do second best, not even for you and certainly not for Gwen fucking Williams." She paused for breath, I decided to jump in whilst I had the chance.

"Sophie it wasn't like that..."

"Shut the fuck up."

"But I didn't..."

"I said shut the fuck up."

"Sophie, don't be like this." I started to say, but she'd already hung up on me.

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I drove down the motorway far too fast, but I was Torchwood, I could do anything. I hung up the phone and carried on driving, swerving through the lanes avoiding the cars and ignoring the drivers as they beeped their horns at my erratic driving. I turned up my stereo, which was playing Muse, and started singing along to take my mind off the current situation.

My phone rang again. It was Jack, I ignored it. I didn't want to talk to him. I felt betrayed and used. Now that he had his darling Ianto and his darling Gwen and his darling Torchwood, he didn't want me but that was fine. I was just going to go home and wait for him to come and rectify his mistakes and then I could just laugh at him.

It was whilst I was imagining putting Jack in his place that I noticed the motorway notice on the board. 'Sophie Harper, we are waiting for you.' I looked back in front of me and the entire road was blocked by a huge truck that hadn't been there a moment ago. I quickly put my foot on the brake, hard. I was going too fast to stop and I crashed straight into it then my world went black.


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

I.J. looked at me like a glass of milk. Only a few minutes ago I was playing with him. Then the laughter stopped. I had set him down on the floor in front of the fridge and turned to see Toshiko and Owen staring at me in the same way. It was horrifying to see all three children gawking at me.

"What the fuck?" Rhys yelled, dropping the video camera on the floor and rushing over to his youngest children while Jack and I tended to I.J.

Jack waved his hand in front of I.J.'s face, blew into his eyes and even shook him while Gwen was outside, rushing around to see how many other children had stopped.

"I.J.!" Jack yelled. "I.J.? Snap out of it, buddy! Please!"

"Tosh!" Rhys whimpered, hugging onto his daughter. "Stop it! You're frightening Daddy! Snap out of it, alright? Come on! Owen!" He turned his attention to his youngest son. "Owen! Come on, son! You can't be a doctor if all you're doing is staring off into space, can you?"

***

I knocked on yet another door, and yet another panicked parent appeared- this time a man dressed in slacks and a plain vest- with wide, fearful eyes.

"Sorry sir," I apologised quickly. "But I was just wondering if you had any kids who appeared to just suddenly stop." Not the best, but I was in a hurry to get through the whole area.

"What the bloody hell d'you mean?" He seemed somewhat offended. "Of-bloody-course my kids have fucking well stopped!"

"Okay," I said. "Sorry I disturbed you- I just wanted to check that Mrs. Conway and I weren't alone." I quickly ran off to the next house and did the same thing and the same thing with the next few houses until I reached the end of the street, where I was pulled in by an anguished mother who thought I would be able to cure her kids of stopping suddenly. I was pulled into the living room where a young boy with strawberry-blonde hair was staring at the television, which had been switched to BBC News.

***

I heard a noise from the kitchen counter, cutting through the silence. I looked up and saw that the small TV had been switched on by Rhys. The story was something about the Bridgend Suicides. The reporter tapped his earpiece and spoke quietly for a second, and finally looked up with a pale look on his face.

"I'm sorry, but it seems we have some breaking news. Seven years ago the Five Days of Fear brought the entire world's children to a standstill, quite literally. This also coincided with the pillar of fire which descended upon Thames House, causing a poisonous gas to flood the building and suffocate everyone who was inside. One of those who died was one Ianto Jones..." My mouth dropped as a photo of me- the one where I actually _smiled_ and actually wore that mauve shirt- appeared on the screen, and the reporter continued with a voiceover; "Ianto Jones reportedly worked as a Civil Servant up until the moment of his death in Thames House. However, we have received scattered reports that he has been sighted around the country, along with Jenna Southend..." the picture of a young woman with blonde hair appeared onscreen, "Simon Bellow..." the picture of an African man in a pressed grey shirt appeared, along with several others, but I didn't catch their names because I was too numb to pay attention, right up until the final line, as I.J. made that dying-radio noise again.

We all turned to him as he started speaking in that husky, grunting voice.

"We..." The three of them grunt-breathed together. "We... We have her... Jack. We have... Sophie... We are coming... We are coming... We are coming for... Ianto."


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty Four:

"Urgh." I groaned as I woke up, well I thought that I'd woken up but everything was still black. I tried blinking to no avail my world was still as black and as silent as the last moment I remembered.  
"Sophie... Harper... You are now... You are now property of... The 456," I looked round even though I wasn't completely back to normal and slightly off balance. I spun round searching, listening, waiting for some sign as to where the speech was coming from. It didn't matter what I did though all I could feel was vulnerable at the thought of this unseen enemy because I sure as hell couldn't detect them in the room with me, but the voice had more to say.

"Sophie... Harper... We have decided... We have decided to test your resourcefulness. You... Will have... One hour... To escape... If you pass... If you pass you will have escaped us... For now. Should you fail... Should you fail... You will die." My ears pricked up a little as I thought I heard something in the background. "Your... Time... Starts... Now." The sound crackled and faded like a dying radio and it reminded me of something I had heard before. Something familiar and yet I couldn't quite place it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack walked into the room looking distressed. "Gwen, what's going on?" he asked as we noticed his re-entrance into Gwen's house.

Gwen ignored him and carried on talking into her phone. "And you're absolutely sure that it's her car?" she asked whoever she was talking to. She paused and listened intently to whatever the other person was saying. "No I suppose you're right, a bright red Porsche isn't all that common. Thanks for telling me Andy. Bye." She hung up and turned to face myself and Jack who were sat on her sofa.  
"Sophie's been in a car accident." She said after a moment's pause. I watched as Jack's face fell and tears sprung into his blue eyes.

"Oh my God. Gwen, is she okay? Where is she? We should really get to the hospital. Ianto, go and get the SUV." I started to move but Gwen shook her head at me so I stayed where I was.  
"Umm." Gwen floundered, searching for the right words to say what was on her mind. "I don't know where she is. She wasn't at the scene of the accident. They can't find her anywhere."  
"What?" Jack asked, complete and utter confusion and despair, which quickly turned to annoyance when my phone started ringing. "Ianto, turn it off. Now isn't a good time."  
I go to switch off the call but out of habit I check the caller ID first:

_Sophie Harper: Mobile_

I looked over at Jack and whispered to him "I'm sorry I have to take this. It's important." I ignored the glare that he sent in my direction and picked up the phone.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was so relieved when he picked up the phone. There was no one else I could trust to get here within the hour. "Don't talk, just listen and trace this call."

"Okay" He said letting me know he understood me. A few moments later he spoke again "Right I've got you I'm coming now."

"Okay I can start figuring my way out now. I've been abducted by the 456. They have given me an hour to escape or I die. It's some sort of test. Ianto I'd put your foot on it I'm only twenty five and I don't think I want to die yet." I thought I'd be honest as my chances of getting out of this room were pretty slim.

"Ianto I'm going to go now so I can focus on getting out of here. Oh actually, where am I?" I realised that if I knew where I was I stood a better chance of getting out.

"You're underneath the old Hub. Does that help?" Ianto asked me. I didn't say anything but it helped me immensely. No one except Tosh and Owen knew that I had visited the Hub before and that I knew my way around it easily.

"More than you'll ever know Ianto. Okay, I'm going see you later." I hung up and headed straight for the door. This was just too easy.

"Ianto, you're a life saver." I said as I climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV. We had ten minutes to get as far away as possible. "Ianto as you are my official knight in shining armour, would you mind if I made a phone call? I'm assuming my car is wrecked."

"Call who you like and yes I'm afraid it is." I grimaced that wasn't what I wanted to hear. Now I have to make that phone call." I started dialling the number as slowly as humanly possible.  
"Michael Sebastian Harrington's office, how may I help you today?" Oh great I thought to myself, another new secretary, just what I needed.

"Hi it's Sophie Anna Harrington-Harper, can you put me through?"

"Um I'm afraid not, he's in a very important meeting and he said no-one was to be put through unless it was an emergency." This snotty nosed bitch didn't have a clue who I was, well I decided that I was going to teach her.

"Okay, you've got thirty seconds to put me through to your superior." I wasn't taking her shit anymore I had just been in a car crash and said car was a write off.

"Okay I'm putting you through. Shall I tell her who's calling?"

"Oh, you might as well. You've got nothing left to lose."

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My day was going from bad to worse. My first day and I had already managed to rub the boss up the wrong way. "Um... There's a Sophie Anna Harrington-Harper calling for Mr Harrington. She refuses to take no for an answer and wants to speak to you."

"Well of course she refuses to take no for an answer you stupid girl! Mr Harrington is her father."  
Hastily I put her through.

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I grinned in triumph as I got put through. "Look I'm busy right now you'll have to call back some other time."

"Daddy! How can you say that? I've had the most awful day!" I refused to let him get his own way again.  
"Sophie I'm busy."

"I was in a car crash Daddy! I could have died! Don't you care?"

"Of course I care sweetie. What is it you want?"

"Well Daddy, now that you mention it... my car's a complete wreck and I have nothing to drive."

"A new car will be on your doorstep within the hour sweetie."

"Thank you Daddy. I'll let you go now."

"Okay sweetie bye." he hung up on me before I could say another word. Ianto looked over at me questioningly.

"He's always the same. He'll give me anything just to get off the phone." I looked over at Ianto sadly.

"Owen was the closest family that I had and now he's dead."

I jumped as the radio crackled into life. "Sophie... Harper... You have escaped... For now. The 456... Will get you..." The radio crackled and faded and I knew where I'd heard that noise before.


	26. Chapter 25

**Chapter Twenty-five**

Jack held onto Danica's hand, and said quietly; "We can't thank you enough, Dani." She smiled at him, and then at me, her ice-grey eyes filled with warmth. I rested my hand on her belly, and felt a small kick- the baby had been doing that for a couple of months.

"It's okay, you two," she said in her velvety voice, looking up at the ceiling. "I don't mind doing this- maybe it'll finally get Jack off my back!"

The doctor walked in and set his clipboard on top of the monitor, straightened his tie and looked at Jack. "Are we ready to begin, Mr. Harkness?"

Jack looked at the door- he had asked Gwen to bring her family, and we were expecting Sophie to burst in at any second since she had been there since day one. That day, though, it seemed like it would just be the three of us.

After a few moments, Jack hung his head and breathed; "Yeah."

Just as the doctor began to apply the jelly to Danica's belly, Gwen stumbled in, followed by Sophie, I.J. and Tosh. "Sorry I'm late, Jack." She panted. "Traffic's murder and Rhys had to take Owen to the dentist's."

"Excuse me-" The doctor began to protest, but Jack cut him off.

"It's okay- they're family, and I want them to be here."

"Very well," the doctor said suspiciously, continuing to rub Danica's belly with the gel. "One moment, Miss Hawk, let me just tune the monitor... there we go!"

He picked up the scanner and ran it along the baby bump for a few moments.

"Mummy," Tosh piped up. "What's going on?"

"Quiet, please," the doctor whispered as a blurry image appeared on the screen. "Miss Hawk, Mr. Harkness and Mr. Jones, now we can see the uterus and the amniotic fluid-" he indicated the area of black surrounding two static-like grey shapes. _Two?_ "And here-" he indicated the shapes, "- we can see that it looks like you're having twins! Congratulations, Mr. Harkness and Mr. Jones!"

"Oh, Jack! Ianto!" Gwen rushed to hug us both as a heavy weight of ecstasy swarmed around me. I looked at Jack- he had turned white, and looked as though somebody had told him the world was going to end. I smiled, and hugged Gwen and Sophie, but as I was moving to hug I.J., a startling realisation hit me, and all I could do was run out of the room and into the corridor, knocking down some books and a few bits of cleaning equipment. I rounded a corner then stopped for breath.

Out of a mix of shock and shame, I covered my face with my hands before running them through my hair. I heard a voice behind me; "Ianto?"

I turned and the instant I saw that Jack was standing there, I collapsed into his arms. He gently rubbed my back, and I calmed down slightly.

***

I looked at Ianto. I could see the pure fear in his eyes, and I could feel him trembling.

"What's wrong?" I asked gently.

"I'm scared." He whimpered.

"Of course you are," I shrugged with a slight laugh. "All fathers are scared when they realise they're having a kid... or, in your case, _kids_."

"No, Jack." He pulled away from me and slumped against the wall. "It's just... I'm scared I'll be like my father."

"What do you mean?" I rested my hand on his shoulder. "From what you told me, he sounds like a hell of a guy."

"Lies! Everything I told you about my father was a lie! My father didn't like me or Rhiannon," he sighed shakily. "He always used to tell us that if he had the chance, he'd go back in time and castrate himself so that he wouldn't be able to have us."

"What?" I gasped, appalled. "Why would he say that?"

He tucked his chin to his chest and screwed his eyes shut, preventing tears. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and kissed the top of his head.

"You've seen my file- I didn't do too well in school, I was crap at sports, and I wasn't exactly an attractive child. So much so he used to refer to me as 'Ugly Duckling'. With Rhiannon, he was slightly better, but not by much. He wanted his first child to be a boy, like it was in his family, but he was disappointed heavily when she was a born. He just ignored her results, her efforts, and other stuff like that. He only acknowledged her when he thought she could do something only a woman would be able to do." He looked at me, and must have seen what I was thinking. "Not stuff like that!" He spat. "I mean stuff like cooking, cleaning, the laundry... chores you see the impoverished women doing in Catherine Cookson novels. Then he had me, and he was feeling slightly prouder, then he tried to get me into sports, but he failed. Then he tried to force me to do well in school, but I was so terrified of what he was going to do to me I couldn't concentrate." The last part came out as a choked sob. I hugged him tightly and kissed the top of his head, repeatedly rubbing his back to comfort him.

"Ianto," I said softly as he cried into my shoulder. "I think I know you better than your father ever did. No wonder you lied about him- I think I'd've done the same if that ever happened to me. Yan, believe me- you're nothing like your father was. He sounds like he hated kids full stop, and I've seen how you act around I.J., Tosh and Owen- nobody who hates kids would act so kind around them."

"I'm still scared, Jack." He mumbled against my shoulder.

"Don't worry," I kissed his neck gently. "You'll be a great dad. I know you will."


	27. Chapter 26

_Hello, Gavaudin here! I just want to let you lot know that I'm uploading this chapter as a single one, and the rest tomorrow- we've finished writing this one (which we've titled "Without Wax"- ask if you want to know why) and are starting work on a sequel! Enjoy!_

Chapter 26: Everybody Has a Little Secret

"And that wraps up today's meeting I told my associates. I walked back to my office and closed the door. I walked up to my desk and put my head in my hands. I couldn't believe that the younger of my two children had managed to wreck her car after a few months. After a few minutes I picked up the phone and started phoning around.

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I caught sight of the car almost instantly... a brand new black Ferrari that was sat on my doorstep and I couldn't help but notice the price tag was a lot bigger than the one for my Porsche, I found a note attached to the windscreen I plucked it off gingerly.

"_Sophie,__  
__I hope you know that I hate it when you call me at work... and when you call me at home. I've already told you; if you've got a problem go to your mother. I'm not bailing you out again this is the last car you're going to get from me. You and your brother were nothing but trouble all along; I don't know why I had you._

_Your Father."_

I wasn't sure what pissed me off the most, the fact that he thought he'd bailed me out. I could have easily got myself a new car. The fact that he'd made it so blatantly obvious that he hated me or finally, the fact that I had a brother when I'd been led to believe I was an only child.  
I walked up to my letterbox and found the keys to the car, the latest in a long line of 'I don't want you to love me so if I but you this, will you fuck off presents'. I slowly entered the flat ready to start searching for my brother when I realised the truth. "Oh my God! Noooo!" I screamed and kicked over my coffee table.

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I pressed 'send' and the fax went through to the car makers and sat back getting ready to carry on with a highly important spreadsheet. Then I realised what I had put in the letter. I rang Ferrari. "Hello this is Michael Sebastian Harrington of Harrington's Personal Loan Services. I just sent a fax to you to put on the windscreen of the car I just bought. It's not the right one, can it be sent back to me?"

"I'm afraid not sir, we have a strict policy I'm afraid." The woman on the other end of the phone sounded apologetic.

"It's alright... I'll just have to figure something else out. Thanks for your help. Goodbye." I slammed the phone down and kicked over the nearest bin. After I'd finished having my tantrum I picked up the phone and prepared to pay nearly a million pounds on the best car in the world to apologise to my wayward daughter or rather to give the illusion of apologising to my wayward daughter.

I was still taking my frustration out on my furniture when I heard another car park outside my door. I looked out of the window and saw a Bugatti Veyron. I wasn't impressed at the sudden u turn but was more than happy to drive the car. I started walking down to it when a squeal came through on every single radio in the house.

"Aaah." I breathed in pain as the noise hit my ears. I tried to turn it off but couldn't. I felt liquid drip down the side of my face and I instantly raised my hand to investigate it. When I pulled my hand away it was covered in blood. I started staggering to the door to get away from the noise.  
I scrabbled for some car keys and the second I felt them I clenched onto them and continued trying to get away. I don't know how far I got but my world, once again, turned black.

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I started back on my work, my duty as a father fulfilled for now, although I couldn't help but wonder when I'd have to spend even more money on her. I was relieved that her sibling never knew the truth and just accepted the money that came his way.

I closed my briefcase and rang my wife. "Hi, I'm going to be staying late at work tonight I'm afraid. I've just spent half of the day ferrying stuff for our daughter and I'm behind."

"Okay, I'll just throw your dinner in the bin... as always." She sighed.

"Okay darling, I'll grab something from the cafeteria." I hung up before either of us could say another word and turned around my chair. Stood in front of in nothing but sexy lingerie was my secretary.  
I stood up and pulled her towards me. Tonight was going to be very pleasurable indeed.

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"Jack, what's up?" Ianto asked me looking worried.

"I'm not sure but Sophie's emergency alarm is going off. She managed to connect something to my wrist strap which means I know when she's in danger." I explained trying not to sound too worried.  
"Is that why we got the hologram when that guy tried to rape her?" Ianto questioned me and I knew I had to tell him the truth otherwise I would never find out what was going on with Sophie.

"Yes it is Ianto. Now, please can I go? I want to make sure she's alright. Do you want to come with me?" I asked eager to get to Sophie's flat which was in one of the best areas of Cardiff.

"Okay." He told me, "Let's go." We jumped into the SUV and started speeding through the streets of Cardiff. It felt like an eternity but it couldn't have been. When we reached Sophie's place I was ready to jump out before the car had stopped.

Ianto pulled me back. "Jack. What are you trying to do? Kill yourself?" He asked me with all the sincerity in the world.

"Okay I will wait until you've stopped the car." I told him as he slammed his foot on the brakes. "Thank you Ianto. I am expecting you'll follow me once you've parked properly."

"As always Jack, as always. Can't be going around getting parking tickets now, can we?" I didn't actually reply to him. I was too busy running out onto the street and breaking down the door to the flats. It took a few minutes but I got in eventually and started taking the steps two at a time.  
I found her not very far from her front door. "No! Sophie? Can you hear me? Sophie?" I couldn't believe this was happening again. "Not me! Why is it always me you choose to bully?" I was sick of being bullied by the 456 and I didn't know what to do.

"She's not dead, Jack." Ianto told me. I hadn't even realised he had arrived. "She's nearly dead but not quite. She's a fighter but we have to get her to hospital."No Ianto. Not the hospital."

"Well under normal circumstances I'd take her back to the Hub and ask the doctor to sort her out. But the problem with that is that she is the doctor and she can't exactly cure herself can she?"  
We were so busy arguing that we hadn't noticed her come back to consciousness. She was very weak and I wondered if I was going to lose her but then I remembered something. "Ianto. Sophie started insisting that we carried blood in the SUV. Go and get a packet it might help her." Ianto instantly started off to get the blood when Sophie grabbed me and pulled me close to her. "I've learned three things." She told me. "One: life is shit, and then you die. Two: I don't actually want to die. Three: Owen wasn't my cousin, he was my brother."


	28. Chapter 27

**Chapter Twenty-Seven:**

_They say that dreams are just the brain's cure for boredom... Others say that dreams are just your subconscious over-reacting to a sudden rush of emotion... The rest say that dreams are nothing but crap and should be ignored at all costs. I side with none of them. To me, dreams are fraught with fear, secrecy and denial. Not to mention the countless terrors I've faced since I met Jack. _

_Owen joining Torchwood, then dying, then becoming a zombie, then becoming nothing but a puddle of mush in a nuclear power plant. I couldn't help feeling...._

_Something hit me from behind, square in the back of my head. I turned to see just another rounded wall of static. There was no doubt about it- the 456 had me in their grasp. What were they going to do with me now? Were they going to use me as a satellite? Would I be one of their child-like transmitters for Torchwood, spreading messages to strike fear into the blood and hearts of the world?_

_I didn't know- I was too confused. I hated being used for the benefit of others. _

_Before I started working for UNIT, my father told me that I was only conceived to save my parents' marriage, to give them something to remain together for. Fat lot of good that did! My father didn't know that I knew that while he told my mother he was doing paperwork, he was actually shagging his secretary. I haven't told my mother- why would she care? She was on the brink of leaving him anyway; it would be just another annoyance. On the other hand she might have thought I was making it up for attention._

_What was that?! A shadow just moved across the static-like background of the..._

_There it is again! And again! _

_Okay. I calmed down slightly, realising it was gone._

_My parents resented me... that much I knew. My cousin was in fact my brother, so why hadn't I grown up with him? I knew I was one of the Children of Torchwood._

_All I can do is run away.... away from the voices..._

_"Sophie..."_

_"You were nothing but trouble all along!"_

_"Sophie..." _

_They're chasing me... EVERYWHERE! OH MY GOD THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!_

_I'm running now, away from this nightmare, but it's all static, so where do I hide? All I know is that I escaped once, but this time I might not be so lucky. I have to escape._

_I have to escape...._

_I have to..._

_I have... to..._

_THEY'VE CAUGHT ME! THEY'VE CAUGHT ME! I'M TRAPPED..._

_CAN'T... _

_BREATHE. _

_S.O.S. _

_Jack..._

- - - - - - - -

"Will she be okay?" I asked frantically as I watched Sophie's body jerk awkwardly. I had called her parents, but they didn't seem to care. Her father seemed pretty pissed when I called him, and hung up without hearing what I had to say, while her mother seemed indifferent, like the life of her only living child being in danger actually mattered less than a glass of water spilling on a dirty carpet.

"Mr. Harkness," the neurologist said sympathetically, resting a hand softly on my shoulder. "We are doing all we can. She appears to be stable, but at the same time critical. We've run every test possible on her, and are still awaiting the results, although from the initial scan, the only way we can describe it is that her mind appears to be in a state of static."


	29. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty Eight: Into The Abyss

The thing that I knew I would never forget for as long as I lived was the scream that escaped from her lips whilst she was in that state of static. I put my hands over my ears and watched the man stood next to me cry. At that moment I felt so hopeless and I didn't know if there was anything I could do to help. I quietly stepped out of the room and made my way out of the hospital. I rang the only person I could think of who would understand what was going on.

"Hi Gwen." I said when she picked up the phone. I wasn't sure what to say next but Gwen had always been extremely perceptive, it was why she had been picked out for Torchwood.

"Ianto, what's up? I heard over the radio that Sophie had been found nearly dead after being attacked. Rhys has just arrived home so I can come down and help you out. What kind of state is Jack in anyway?"  
"It's awful Gwen. I don't know what to do. He phoned her parents and they didn't give a fuck. He would have rang her brother but he's dead so he can't give a fuck. Gwen Jack's the only one that seems to care but the doctors aren't telling him much unless he forces them to..."

"Whoa, Ianto, hold up a minute. Her brother?" she asked me. "I thought she was an only child."  
"So did she. But apparently in her only moment of lucidity, she told Jack that Owen wasn't her cousin but her brother. I don't know how this conclusion came about though." I told her, oblivious to the fact that our serious conversation had just turned gossipy and completely off topic.

"Really?" Gwen continued to question me. "How on Earth did she find that out?"

"As I said I'm not entirely sure but it is believed to have been a slip of the tongue from her father."  
"No! I can't believe it!"

"Well I can. If you'd had the luxury of seeing the two of them together, you'd get it. They look too much like each other and act too much like each other to be anything but."

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_And the darkness surrounded me and there was no escape. The more I tried the denser it got and the denser it got the closer to me it got. The desire to fight the static was leaving me, there was no reason to fight it and I was getting so comfortable in the silent confusion._

_But that's when I saw him standing there, looking at me, just as always and I felt ready to be with him once again._

_Temptation._

_  
__He opened his arms out to me just like he always did and I just wanted to leap into them, I just wanted to hug him and more than anything I wanted to feel alive again._

_That was too much temptation._

_I ran to him, fighting the darkness and the static even though they refused to let go of me. I didn't give up the fight and eventually I reached him and put my arms around him, so happy that I could hold him once again, devastated as my arms went straight through his torso._

_Just a ghost._

_Nothing but a ghost._

_"Noooo!" I screamed the illusion shattered. I felt myself sink into despair._

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After Gwen had arrived at the hospital, we walked up to the room where Sophie lay, together. We spent a few moments at the doorway watching over her. She looked so serene yet at the same time she looked so tortured.

Our attention was stolen away from Sophie by Jack. He had a look in his eye and I had never seen him look so upset, not even in the moments when he thought I was dying. I felt myself get a bit jealous of the young woman who had so obviously stolen Captain Jack's heart.

He was grappling with doctors and security guards, in his hands were defibrillators and he looked as though he was preparing to shock Sophie. Gwen and I entered the room and found ourselves in complete chaos.

"Mr Harkness, I'm afraid we can't..."

"It's Captain, and I know what I'm doing."

"Jack no!" I cried out, moving towards him. "What are you doing?"

"Jack, you can't do that, its insanity." Gwen told him sternly. "You'd kill her Jack, and then what would you do? You're out of your mind."

At the sound of our voices, the crazed look left his eyes and he slumped to the floor, exhausted.

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_"Jack! Save me! Jack!" I screamed at the top of my lungs into the darkness whilst trying not to choke on the solid fog that surrounded me. However there was nothing I could do, I could feel myself drifting slowly into the abyss._

_I knew at this point that it would do me no good, he couldn't hear me. I was on my own this time. I had to find a way to save myself before it was too late and I ended up in this darkness permanently.__  
__Then I begin to hear noises._

_A scream._

_Two screams._

_A buzz._

_Two buzzes._

_And I can hear shouting and it hurts._

_I begin to feel my heart wrench away and my insides tear up and I feel tears prick my eyes because I'm in such agony._

_And I can feel and it hurts._

_The darkness slowly fades and I can see the light under my eyelids, but it's too much too soon.__  
__And I can see and it hurts._

_Suddenly the abyss seems like heaven and for a split second I wish I could return to it._

_Suddenly the numbness that I felt before seems like heaven and I want to feel it again.__And then I do the only thing I can think of to get rid of the physical and emotional and mental pain. I scream._


	30. Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty Nine: Accidents Can Sometimes Lead To Genius.

I looked at her. Something seemed not quite right, yes she was awake and she was Sophie, but something was different. It was just slight and it was the way she was looking at Jack, like she fancied him. I know it was probably just me being paranoid but then Gwen nudged me in the ribs.  
"Oooh look at that! She fancies him; you're going to have to watch your back." She told me. I kicked myself for thinking it was just paranoia.

"Nah, she can't do. She didn't before; you know that as well as I do."

"Yeah well it appears she does now."

I walked over to the two of them. Sophie was sat up in bed, and Jack was in a chair by her side. I listened in on their conversation.

"Sophie what was it like... you said that you weren't alone. Is there something that you need to tell me?"

I sat on the edge of her bed. She glared at me but something in her eyes seemed dead and it frightened me. Her eyes were like the children's back in the five days of terror. If it wasn't for the fact that she was conscious and talking I'd say that she was being controlled by the 456.

"Jack I could see him, Owen, my cousin." After what she had said before I became immediately suspicious and I ran out of the room and out of the hospital and, without regard for safety, I took off in the SUV, breaking every speed limit until I got into Sophie's flat. Once inside, I started to rifle through her phonebook and found her father's number. I rooted around in my pocket and pulled out my mobile, dialling the number quickly. I put it to my ear. It rang once. Twice. Halfway through the third ring, a man with a very annoyed deep voice picked up.

"Michael Sebastian Harrington. Who the fuck is this?"

"Hello, sir," I said, taken aback by this man's rude tone. "I must stress my apologies if this is a really bad time for you. My name is Ianto Jones, and I have been ordered by superior to tell you that your daughter Sophie has been hospitalised. She started in a critical condition, but is now able to talk and can move slightly, so-"

"Listen, Jones," he sneered. "I don't know you, but I can already tell that you're an arrogant son of a bitch. I really couldn't care less about my daughter- she's a spoiled little fucker anyway."  
"Okay..." I said uncertainly, feeling a little sorry for Sophie. "Well, I also have some news about your son-"

"Oh for the love of!" He sounded exasperated. "Would you fuck off? Owen was nothing to me- he was just a mistake made by me and his mother. I don't care about either of them- I hated them both, and could not care less if either of them died." With that, he hung up. I tossed my phone down, and buried my head in my hands, in total silence until I heard footsteps behind me.  
"Ianto?" I heard a timid voice say. I turned and saw I.J. standing in the threshold of the living room, on his own.

"I.J.?" I asked, surprised. "How did you get here?"

"Well," he shrugged with a sarcastic eye-roll. "You just ran off and my mum was worried so she came out of the hospital after you and when she noticed that the SUV had gone she rang my dad. He got us in the car and drove here because mum suspected that you'd come here. So anyway my dad's in the car with Toshiko and Owen, or Tosh and Orange Juice as I like to call them." A cheeky grin spread across his face.

"Good point about your mum. She's good like that. Don't spend too long up here then, your dad will get worried. Orange Juice?"

"Umm yeah, my mum likes to call him OJ. I heard what you were saying about Sophie," He started walking around the room, and came to a stop at the laptop on the coffee table. "What's wrong with her? Is it bad? I hope not, I like Sophie."

"She was in a coma," I explained. "But she came out of it and she was looking a little... strange when she woke up." I looked up, at I.J.- he was playing with the laptop. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I asked Sophie to show me some software on this, but she wouldn't. She doesn't want me working for Torchwood and she refuses to teach me anything" he said plainly as I came up behind him and looked at the screen- it was pure black with a string of numbers along the horizontal middle, each digit changing after half a second. I watched it for a moment, and then it all clicked into place.  
"I.J.- What have you done to this?" I asked him as I watched the numbers constantly realigning themselves.

"Huh?" He gasped and started to tap on the keys of the computer enthusiastically. He didn't seem sure of what he was doing so I took his hands off the keyboard.

"Leave it, it's the 456!" I told him without breaking contact with the keys or screen. "They've taken control of Sophie's mind! That's why she was in a state of static! That's what I noticed when she woke up!"

"Again, 'huh'?" he looked completely confused, I realised why Sophie didn't want him being in Torchwood and why she was shutting him out. I decided that I would explain as little as possible to protect him from his mother's desire.

Just as I was about to explain, the screen switched from plain black with a stream of green ever-changing numbers, to a picture of a woman, lying flat on her back on a hospital gurney, looking just like any other young woman, albeit a very hung-over young woman who just happened to be Doctor Sophie Anna Harrington-Harper and she was back to herself.

Once again, I heard the noise of a dying radio, and looked at I.J., as he began to speak.  
"We... Have... Relinquished control... Of Sophie... Harper. You... Have... Twenty-Four... Hours... To... Get... To... The... Hub... One. It is the... only way she.... can save you... From... Us. Your time... starts... NOW!"


	31. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty: Countdown to Destruction

"Ouch my head." I muttered "Aaah but it feels so much better to be in control. Right then let's go. We have twenty four hours to come up with a plan of action."

"Sophie, what are you on about? You nearly died, you're not organising anything." Jack told me looking concerned. He also looked slightly confused as though my personality had just completely changed.

Ianto walked calmly into the room. "Sophie, nice to see you back with us." He told me, looking at me intensely, I turned away from him.

"At least someone noticed." I muttered to myself sarcastically. "Right I'm out of here. Where's my car?"

"Umm Sophie, there were two sports cars outside your flat, we didn't know which one was yours so you'll have to take the SUV."

"They're both mine. Daddy's on a guilt trip. He told me Owen was my brother and then sent me another car to apologise."

"Aah it makes sense. Sophie your dad's an idiot. I was on the phone to him and he-"  
"What? Didn't give a fuck?" I sighed "Ianto there's no need to tell me what I already know. I don't want to talk about my screwed up family right now. What I want do is save Gwen's family." I received a grateful glance from Gwen. Okay we've wasted about an hour worrying about me now it's time to move on. Oh one last thing, boys get out of here I need to get out of this stupid hospital gown. Did anyone bring me any clothes?"

"Yes I did." Ianto points out a neat pile of clothes."

"Okay thanks. Gwen can you help me please? You two get out." I was blunt and to the point, not because I was being a bitch but because I didn't want more time wasted.

"Okay I'm going." Jack reluctantly got to his feet and was dragged out of the room by Ianto. Gwen helped me to dress and didn't comment when she noticed scars on my body, although I did notice her facial expression change slightly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
We were all sat in the Hub two, drawing up a game plan. Jack was meant to be in charge but I was running the show because I was the one with the plan. "Okay as you all know they seem not only to establish contact through the 456 frequency but also control with it. Thanks for the heads up on that Ianto. Maybe we could use this to our advantage?"

"Sophie that could be an idea but we don't have time to work on that theory, we need to discover a way to beat the 456 before figuring out their frequency."

"Jack I know what you're saying but Ianto and I have a theory that if we reverse the frequency to 654 and bounce it off the 456 frequency then tune the two different frequencies together we can create something that can pierce through their defences long enough for us to find a way to get at them. I'm thinking possibly to overload the frequency, they seem to be hooked up to it, and maybe the frequency is something to do with them personally." I paused for breath and Gwen jumped in.

"Sophie, I don't want your theories, I want you to save my family. If all you have is theories then... We. Are. Screwed." She looked me in the eye and I knew that whilst she was being civil to me, she wasn't my ally and never would be, she was too jealous and I knew that wouldn't fight her, I was better than that.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I was exhausted. I had spent the last three hours locked in a room with Ianto Jones, not that I was complaining. He worked hard and was willing to go over everything to make sure we were one hundred percent sure of what we were doing. "I'm sorry about this Ianto." I told him. "I thought we were sorted after seven months but evidently not."

"It's okay Sophie. Maybe the last minute training will come in handy."

"Maybe..." I answered suddenly distracted. "Hang on a minute. If I take this off here," I deleted one of the many equations and put in the numbers 456, "I wonder if these are the missing numbers to overload the frequency?" I was talking to myself more than anything but as my computer started to make the same noise as Gwen's children Ianto turned towards me.

"What the Hell?" he looked at me and I threw myself into his arms in my excitement. He hugged me back in a stiff kind of way although he was obviously confused. "That's the noise which Gwen's kids make. Does that mean...?" His question trailed off.

"Yes! We've done it! We've hacked into frequency 456!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The sun shone brightly on Cardiff Bay as four determined looking people walked towards the place where their workplace used to stand. I watched them from afar and cursed the day that Captain Jack Harkness was born.

I didn't care when or where he was born, for the last seven years I had been all alone. I had no one to care for me because he had murdered my son, I didn't give a fuck about his reasons. He hadn't gone to the funeral and I'd have killed him if he had. I'd heard that the 456 had returned and that Jack was fighting them. I'd come to warn the one that was a mother- Gwen- not to trust him or his new floozy. I had to warn her, I just had to. There wasn't going to be another Steven... not this time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
We walked to the front of where the Hub one used to be. I looked down at the floor and thought of the fallen: Tosh, Suzie, Owen, I had known all three of them well, Even Suzie who was renowned for telling people nothing. I felt an arm go around my shoulder and looked at Jack who seemed to know exactly what I was thinking.

"Sophie its fine. We're all going to get out of this alive. I promise."

The notebook computer that I was carrying started to hiss like a dying radio.  
Gwen's mobile phone rang and when she answered it, it was Rhys to say that the children had stopped.  
In perfect synch we had our next correspondence from the 456. "Your... Time... Is up. You... Now... Have to face... The 456. We... Hope... That you... Have enjoyed... Getting to know... Your children... Gwen... Because ... They... Will... Be... Ours."


	32. Chapter 31

**Chapter Thirty-One: High Voltage**

It came so suddenly, there was barely time to blink. The fire just crashed down like scalding water from a kettle. I don't recall if any of us screamed, but I do remember calling out my children's names. I remember remembering Ianto's first day of school, Owen's first word and Toshiko's first steps. The baptisms, parent's evenings, crocodile tears and even the multiple times I've had to explain what a 'plus' sign is to the kids before they finally buckled down and understood everything they were told.

That day, I thought I was going to die... I was so scared, and the fire... it was so hot. I felt like I was being barbequed.

As sudden as it had come, the fire stopped, and we were all hit by a sudden smack of freezing cold air, and were welcomed by the harsh, ragged breathing of the 456...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stood just behind the water tower, dumbstruck at what I had just seen; Jack Harkness, the bloke in the suit, Jack's new floozy and the dark-haired woman had just been hit by a pillar of fire, which disappeared about two seconds later. I ran over to the site where they stood, where the pavement had not even been marked by the blaze.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Gwen!" I screamed down the phone, irritated at getting the 'Caller Busy- Leave A Message' message a _third_ time. "I swear to God if you don't pick up your phone right now-"

"Dad!" Ianto snatched the phone away from me and closed it, hanging up the call. Then he flipped it open again and began dialling the number. He held it to his ear and looked at me. "Let me try- I'm far more rational than you are. Mum?" He said as I heard a faint fourth 'Caller Busy- Leave A Message'. "Hi Mum, it's I.J. I'm calling because Dad's really annoyed right now, and I figured you could do with a calm caller for a change. I just wanted to know how those codes are working out for that game you're testing out for the Government- the one where the player disappears in a ball of fire and has to fight aliens to get out of captivity. Let's face it- you're worrying us because we haven't heard anything from you since last night. Call back, okay? Love you." He hung up and handed the phone back to me with a cheeky grin and a cheery; "All done." Before leaving the room.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stared directly at the three-headed creature. It was so hard to believe that this creature had led Jack to think that I was dead... this thing had caused him seven years of heartache. Right there, exactly then, it was my moment to get revenge.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked over at Ianto. There it was- that look he always got whenever he was in his kill zone. I normally found it to be a substantial turn-on, but not this time. There was something in his look that I didn't want to be involved with. The something I knew so, so well. The lust for _revenge_.

"The young man... is feisty." The alien breathed. "The doctor... the brother of Harper... she is... perfect."

"Perfect?" I asked, confused. "Perfect for what?" Three splats of vomit propelled themselves forward, hitting a pane of glass. It was then I realised that they must have built a box like the one the politicians had seven years ago, which explained why the air was so cold.

"Silence!" The thing said. "Ah... The man... who can survive... anything. The man who lost... his lover the last... time he faced us."

"Oh yeah," I laughed. "And this time, I brought a weapon. Now Sophie!" Sophie hit the button on the computer, and the record started to roll.


	33. Chapter 32

_It's the moment you've all been waiting for! that's right! the final chapter... and then the epilogue... enjoy._

**Chapter Thirty Two: Every Ending Has a New Beginning**

"Noooo!" She screamed and grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back before I could press the button that signalled 'time to rock and roll'.

"Ouch! What are you doing Gwen you stupid fucking bitch! I'm trying to save your children and you repay me by trying to break my fucking arm."

"But you're not though! That woman told me! She said, don't trust them! They don't mean what they say! So this is me, not trusting either of you!" She had a crazed look in her eye and I wanted to slap her silly for ruining our united front.

"We... Are... Enjoying the... Show. We... Think... It's funny... That you... Are all... Arguing." The 456 made us all jump with this sudden comment. Unfortunately it wasn't enough for Gwen to let go of my arm.

"Jack." I whimpered, "Help me." I looked at him but he was paying me no attention.

"What woman Gwen?" he asked her. I had a feeling that he already knew but he just wanted Gwen to say her name.

"Your daughter Jack, but of course you already knew that. Her exact words were: 'Don't trust my father and his new floozy. They will mislead you and then you will end up all alone, like I did.'"  
"Gwen I had to with Steven. I didn't want to and you know that. Gwen we're trying to save your family... and Sophie. Why would she sacrifice your kids when she could just sacrifice herself?"  
"Oooh I don't know, maybe she's like her cousin/brother/whatever and just wants to shag her way through life." She moved my arm further up my back which caused me to scream out in pain once again.  
"Gwen let go of her." Jack warned her. "You're just making it easier for them to get to your kids."  
"We... Have located... The remaining... Children of Torchwood. They... Will be... Ours. Once we have all six... Of the... Children of Torchwood... We will leave Earth."

"Jack, even if we give them Gwen's kids they're not going to leave." Ianto stated.

"Oh, fuck, shit, Ianto you're right, they want your kids as well. Gareth and Naoko? Now it makes sense. Nice names gentleman, I'm proud of you."

"Sophie, you've gone off topic." Jack walked closer to Gwen and looked at me closely. "Sophie, doesn't that hurt you?"

"Yes Jack but I've had worse and I'm not going to make a complete twat of myself by crying. Oh for fucks sake Gwen let go of me." she didn't let go but moved her hand within reach of my mouth so I bit her.

"Ouch!" she squeaked a bit like a mouse. "What did you do that for?"

"Go figure Gwen." I told her. "Jack let me explain what I want to do." I winked at Ianto who casually towards the computer.

"Okay as you know I've been working on a series of equations that I have suspected will overload the frequency. Anyway whilst trying to figure out the equations to overload, I managed to hack into their systems and now I can use their technology against them, without killing everyone."  
"We... Will take... Sophie... Harper... Now as... A deposit. Her... Intelligence... Intrigues us." Jack stepped forward.

"She's mine and she's not for sale." He told the alien in the box.

"Can I carry on now?" I asked. "Anyway as I was saying we're going to use your technology against you. So what I was going to do is take the hacking frequency and switch it on and this will hurt me as much as it hurts you, and times it by two, in other words layer it on again. Then I was going to hook it up to all the speakers in here and hit play and then I was going to take the pitch right up to as high as it will go and then I was going to cover my ears and hope that it got to you before it got to me."

A loud squeal started to come from the speakers situated all around the room. I shrieked and went to cover my ears but I couldn't because Gwen had one of my arms at breaking point. Tears started streaming down my face and I could feel the blood pouring out of m ears once again. The aliens screaming reached a crescendo and then there was an explosion as it blew up all over the case that it had had built for itself.

"Ianto, turn it off now." I told him. He did as I requested and I tried once again to get out of Gwen's vice like grip, but failed. "I just saved your kids and you're still trying to break my arm? God Gwen, nothings good enough for you is it?"

"How do I know that you did it for my children and not yourself?"

"Well Gwen, she's got more respect for your kids than you ever have. You're preparing them for Torchwood, knowing that they will die young. That's just not right Gwen and we'd never do that." Ianto piped up.

"I'm sorry Gwen but you've just been out voted, now let her go, she needs medical attention." Jack tried coaxing her.

"I don't need medical anything but she will unless she lets go of my fucking arm. Gwen. Get. The. Fuck. Off. Of. Me."

I felt the grip release from my arm and the only reason I stayed on my feet is because Jack caught me. We looked at each other and the events of the day got to me and I kind of semi collapsed in exhaustion. Jack held on to me and it seemed like we were all in the original Hub for an age.  
When I felt better I broke the silence. "It brings back memories being here."

"It does but this period of our lives is over and we should be making a move." Jack pointed out. We all walked to the lift and got on it. It was a bit of a squeeze but there was no other exit now that the Hub had been decommissioned.

We stepped out onto Cardiff Bay and looked at the scenery and the action that was going on around us.  
"Well, I'd better be off then. I've got to feed the kids and everything." Gwen told us and started walking away towards her ordinary family life.

"Ianto, we'd better be off too. We've got to go view some houses." Jack said and they walked in the opposite direction to Gwen, their hands entwined in one another.

I watched everyone walk away and for a moment I wished that there was someone to love me, but there wasn't and I'd learnt to cope with that. So where did I go from here? I went to the place that I always went to; I went to where my heart was.


	34. Epilogue

**What Sophie Said**

It must have been an hour since we had all gone our separate ways. I had spent a few minutes staring at the water wondering whether I should go to him but in the end I got in my car and drove here. I got out and easily found my way around the location, having been here so many times before. I sat where I normally sit and I prepared myself to tell you the story of my life, the one that you should already know but didn't because the fear still lived inside me, but now I was ready to tell you the story of my life. The only problem was I didn't know what to say. For the first time ever when I was in your presence I didn't know what to say.

"Hello again Owen. I'm not quite sure what to say, I don't even know why I'm here, but hey I guess now that I am I have a few things to tell you. Well first of all and most importantly I have discovered that you weren't my cousin, you were my brother. Also we defeated the 456, they nearly killed me but hey, I got the upper hand in the end." I stopped and looked around the deserted graveyard, I knew it was a matter of now or never so I took the plunge and decided to tell Owen just what he'd 'missed' out on by being raised as my cousin as opposed to my brother.

"Well anyway I've decided to tell you what my life was like. You know the life of Sophie Anna Harrington-Harper, heiress and spoilt bitch. Well it wasn't like that Owen, despite what you hear. Everything I had was all because of my parent's guilt. I wish so much that they'd given me away too. You were so lucky and you never even knew why." I paused for a moment as I felt tears come to my eyes. I closed them and tried to regain my composure. I had to finish this; I had to tell the truth. I t was the only way I was going to be able to move on from the nightmare that was my childhood.  
"Well anyway. All the gifts meant nothing to me. I spent as much of my time as possible away from the house. Father's temper is volatile at the best of times but I seemed to bring out the worst in him. If I so much as breathed he'd shout at me so I tried to stay out of his way. As you know he liked to drink, still does but when he drank he started to hunt me down, he'd beat me up, sometimes with his fists, sometimes with his belt. I didn't know what to do." I stopped again, the tears beginning to roll freely down my cheeks. I was beginning to wish that I hadn't started this one sided conversation. It was an accident waiting to happen but I seemed to suddenly have verbal incontinence and couldn't stop the words jumping out of my mouth.

"I'd beg him not to. I'd beg him to stop. I was so scared that it would become more than that, so scared that he'd go too far. Sometimes when he used his belt, I'd feel it slice my skin; I'd see the blood pour down my skin. Sometimes I'd have to grab a mirror to see it but even if I couldn't see it I'd feel it dribbling down my back." I paused again. I thought I felt someone's eyes on me but I gazed around the cemetery but failed to spot anyone.

"Oh Owen, I was scared of him, so scared and there was nothing I could do. Sometimes I'd sneak out of the house but when I came back he'd be waiting and then it would be even worse. I wonder if he'd have done it to you. You'd have probably kicked his arse."

Once again I felt eyes on me but once again my suspicions were unfounded. "But then you said that you were moving to Cardiff because you'd had a job offer. I was so proud because of all the trouble with the death of Katie. I didn't want you to move anywhere on your own, I wasn't sure you'd be alright. Then you told my father that you wanted to take me with you because you had a feeling that I would be able to hone my already impressive computer skills. He was so pleased to be rid of me and I was so pleased to go. Owen that was the first time you saved my life, and the first time you ruined it. We moved to Cardiff together. For my first year in Cardiff I lived with you as you know I was too young to live on my own, I was only fifteen after all, and that's when I fell in love. It was totally by accident but I'd never seen anyone so beautiful in my life. She'd just come in to have pizza with you, do you remember? She thought I was your girlfriend. You had to put her straight. You told her that I was your cousin and that I was really good with computers. You asked her to help me improve my skills and I was so shocked that she said yes. Now I realise that she only said that because she was in love with you but at the time I was on a high.

"For the next three years I learnt everything she knew and every day I fell even more in love with her. I loved everything about her but she loved you and you treated her like shit. She didn't deserve that Owen." I paused for air. "But then you both went and died on me. But Owen we both know that it should have been me. I would've got through the weevils, we share DNA and it confuses them. I would have known what I was doing, I'd have been faster, and I'd have got out of the building. Oh why didn't you tell me Owen? You'd still be here and so would she because you'd have saved her." I heard the footsteps and I turned around and there stood my father- our father.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him coldly. "You've never bothered before, so you might as well just fuck off now." I barged past him and prepared to make a hasty retreat, memories of my tormented youth returning to haunt me. He grabbed my wrist, tight and spun me around so that I faced him.  
"Why won't you let me forget? Why do you have to keep reminding me every time you see me?" his eyes stared straight into mine and it felt as though he was trying to see the heart of me, to look into my soul and violate me.

I yanked my wrist from his grip and started to take off my coat. "What are you doing?" He asked me, obviously horrified at what I was doing.

"I'm showing you why I can't let you forget. I'm showing you what you've done to me." I pulled off my top and stood there. I turned around and showed him my back. I made it obvious that I was pointing out the scars that were so pale that they were practically invisible unless you looked closely like Gwen had when she was helping me to dress.

"You did that father. You took your belt to me and whipped me and your reason for this was that you didn't want me. You decided that you would show you're rejection by beating me up and by bullying me and then you'd send me brand new things when you felt guilty because some things never change. Two cars in a day, Oh daddy, you shouldn't have." He started to say something. "No really you shouldn't have."

"Well I won't do in future. I only came here so I could see if there was anything I could do. I was told you were ill but seem perfectly fine to me so I don't know why I bothered."

"You didn't though; you were too busy fucking your secretary. Now go, this my place. The only place where I can talk to my brother, the brother that you didn't want me to know was actually my brother." I watched him turn around to walk away or at least that's what I thought he was doing. He turned back around his fist balled up, he hit me square on the jaw and I never saw it coming. I fell back unable to keep my balance and cracked my head on the gravestone hard. I pretending to black out and watched as my father's face glowed with satisfaction. He turned his back ready to leave and that's when I pounced.

I jumped up and watched as he spun around, I kicked him in the stomach and my second kick was aimed at his groin. I watched as he doubled over onto his knees clearly in agony but I wasn't finished, I punched his face and watched as he looked at me like a confused puppy. I pulled my Torchwood issue gun on him.

"Don't ever hit me again or I will blow you away and cover it up so well that no one will ever even suspect a thing. You finally got what was coming to you, you may hate me for this a lot of people would hate me for this if they knew but a lot of people would respect me for having the balls to stand up to you."

He slowly got to his feet and also drew a gun on me. "Now that's more like it daddy. Get your gun out; show me that you're a big man. Try to scare me, but unfortunately for you I'm not one of your clients. I know how you work and I can anticipate every single little move that you make." I quickly stepped forward and disarmed him easily. "A bit like that. Now as I said before, go." This time he did, he walked at a brusque pace and I wasn't sorry to see him go.

I turned back to Owen's headstone, but our tranquillity was disturbed now. "I'm so sorry that you had to see that. But I guess you know exactly what he's like now. I'm going to go now Owen and I'll be back, you know me, I never let down those that I love."

I turned and walked away but I didn't get very far. I walked back to Owen and said. "Owen, you know how I fell in love with Tosh when I shouldn't have. What if I thought it was happening again? I mean this person is dating someone else and is so far out of my league but I can't help how I feel about him. Owen I think I'm falling in love with Ianto Jones."


End file.
